A short, memorable domain name could help people find a police department's official website. For instance, www.detroit.police could direct visitors to Detroit's existing police department website. Departments could retain their current addresses and use a .police domain name as an intuitive shortcut.
Illustrative example of how a .police address might appear on a police vehicle.
A domain suffix exclusively for police departments
Possible domain name examples include:
- www.detroit.police
- www.atlanta.police
- www.nypd.police
- www.chicago.police
- www.houston.police
- www.london.police
- www.sydney.police
- www.dubai.police
The proposed .police project is intended as a community-based initiative, with registration eligibility verified by relevant government authorities. Its purpose is to help Internet users recognize and reach official law-enforcement websites.
Simple routes to official police websites
Under the proposed model, intuitive .police domain names could forward visitors to existing official websites. Police departments could also claim and operate their assigned domain names while preserving the links people already use.
- City names: www.atlanta.police could forward to the Atlanta Police Department's official website.
- Department abbreviations: www.nypd.police could direct visitors to the New York City Police Department.
- County or regional names: county.police formats could identify the relevant department.
- Ambiguous names: where several departments share a geographic name, a directory could let visitors select the correct department.
Several domain names, one official destination
Police departments could potentially use multiple names, such as www.miami.police and www.mpd.police, to direct people to the same official website. Claimed domain names could also support email addresses such as publicaffairs@atlanta.police and subdomains such as media.atlanta.police.
Recognizable on police vehicles
Some police vehicles already display department names in a form that resembles a future .police address. Adding a dot could transform this familiar wording into an easy-to-remember web address.
Contact
For information on the proposed .police initiative, contact alexander.schubert@dotpolice.org or call +1 (202) 684-6806.