App helps Fairfax County police arrest indecent exposure suspect

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Fairfax County police said the neighborhood social networking app Nextdoor helped them arrest an Alexandria man wanted for exposing himself to a female jogger.

According to officials, the victim was jogging past the Plymouth Haven Baptist Church near Fort Hunt Road in Alexandria on Aug. 25 when she saw a man in the parking lot of the church walking towards her. As she approached him, the suspect pulled down his pants and exposed himself.

Police said the woman managed to take a picture of the suspect before calling them.

Investigators were later able to identify the suspect as 50-year-old Jamie Martinez Perez. He was arrested just hours after police posted the picture of the suspect on social media.

"It was morning time. She was quick enough to get that phone out and get that picture near the sidewalk and the parking lot of the church," said Fairfax County Police 2nd Lt. Jonathan Bryant. "For this case, we utilized Facebook, Twitter and Nextdoor, and we got that picture out of him in the parking lot and a citizen observed it on the Nextdoor platform. Nextdoor is specific to more community-oriented and we got a phone call down at the Mount Vernon District Station, got a patrol officer out there near the church and we were able to get him identified and arrested."

Perez has been charged with indecent exposure, drunk in public and trespassing.