Financial Aid program announcement

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At Neighborhood Guard we believe that a safe neighborhood is based on (and in) a safe community. No neighborhood is an island and the only way to stay safe is to make other neighborhoods safe as well. The little money we have collected from our activities has to be used for the best of our community.

Today it is our pleasure to announce the Neighborhood Guard financial aid program.

Maximum level of financial support

  1. No Enrollment Fee
  2. No Yearly membership fee
  3. 2/3 contribution towards Equipment purchase. e.g. for every dollar raised  Neighborhood Guard will contribute an additional 2 dollars towards Camera Equipment.

General Eligibility Requirements

  1. Complete member of local Neighborhood Watch/Crime Watch group (Exercises done, signs installed, roster created)
  2. >90% of neighborhood residents on neighborhood roster
  3. >50% households want to be part of Neighborhood Guard
  4. Not available for Merchant Watch groups
  5. Must be within reasonable distance from nearest Neighborhood Guard support
  6. Neighborhood must cover the yearly image storage cost.
  7. Financial aid is given on a first come first serve basis until funds are exhausted for the year.
  8. Final decision to award financial support lies with the Board of Neighborhood Guard, who also has the power to make exceptions.

The Eligibility and sliding Scale.

Eligibility will be based on the latest US Census Poverty Rate data. Specifically the percentage of residents with income below poverty level. When measures on on smallest possible neighborhood census area.

The neighborhood poverty level information of available from a number of sources online.

For example here is a web-site with the poverty data for Oakland. http://www.city-data.com/poverty/poverty-Oakland-California.html

Zoom in to your neighborhood and click to see the poverty rates.
Determining Poverty level of your neighborhood

Sliding Scale legend
NG = Neighborhood Guard Financial aid contribution
Member = Contribution of the member neighborhood group.

Financial Aid v1.0 Sliding Scale table

 

Joining Neighborhood Guard

  • Only organized neighborhoods can join Neighborhood Guard as members.
  • Individual persons are encouraged to volunteer in the organization.

Typical member organizations include:

  • Home Owners Associations (HOA)
  • Neighborhood Watch Groups
  • Other Crime prevention Groups such as:
    • Crime stoppers
    • Block Parents
    • Crime watch
    • Montclair Organized Neighborhoods. (MONs)

Signing up and getting started.

  1. Request a presentation using the “Presentation Page
  2. Setup your organization if needed
  3. Make a budget and collect the money Continue reading

Enrollment Form

Link to Neighborhood Guard Bylaws

Your enrollment will not be completed until your enrollment fee has been paid in full.

Location, Location, Location of Camera

Nothing is more important that the right location for your camera.

No-one can place a camera perfect on the first try, plan to move it a couple of times until you get it just right. Make temporary installations at first; once the location has proven that it can do the job then make the installation permanent.

Place the camera at natural choke-points, that is where cars naturally slow down. PS. a stop sign is not a natural choke point, fleeing burglars will blast through the stop sign.

Place the camera on the outside of a curve to get the license plate from most angles, Never place camera on inside curve as your will only get the side of the vehicle

Place the camera on the outside of a curve to get the license plate from most angles. Never place camera on the inside curve as you will only get the side of the vehicle

Continue reading

Cloud Storage

Cloud_storageA Key concept of the neighborhood Guard System is the cloud storage.  The ability to safely store the recordings away from houses hosting the cameras leads to a number of significant benefits:

  1. No loss of images in case of burglary
  2. No loss of images in case of fire/flood etc.
  3. No technical expertise needed by hosting family.
  4. No power consumption/noise at hosting family.
  5. Ability to access the images from ANYWHERE

Continue reading

Is the 10 x more expensive Piedmont Cameras better?

City of Piedmont: 120 Vista Avenue, Piedmont, CA 94611 | (510) 420-3040

The City of Piedmont, CA is sharing the same problems as the communities that has joined Neighborhood Guard: A high rate of burglaries and violent home invasions. Like the members of Neighborhood Guard they want to use modern Security Camera technology to aid solving crimes. But this is where the similarities end.

Tasked with getting a quote for a camera system the Piedmont Chief of Police came back with a  1.1 Million proposal, that does neither include Operations (power and Wireless fees) nor Installation. The proposal is for 57 cameras, which gives a per camera price of  $20,235 ! ($1,153,416 / 57 cameras).

Comparison:
Neighborhood Guard $2,200 per camera site
City of Piedmont      $20,235 per camera site

Why is Piedmont’s solution so more expensive than the Neighborhood Guard solution?

Is it the installation? No, while Neighborhood Guard is based on volunteer DIY installation, the Piedmont quote does NOT include installation which will be a considerable additional expense. Continue reading

Why not use this cheap Camera ?

We often get the question:

Questions:

1) Why are you using the expensive camera Axis P1347-E when I have just seen a complete set with NVR/DVR and several cameras at Costco ?
2) I am considering getting this NVR with 4  system, that do you think about it?

Answer:

We are glad to hear that you are working on Cameras in your neighborhood, this is an important step in securing your neighborhood.
It is even greater to hear that you are taking the lead in this effort for your neighborhood.
When we started this process we evaluated a number of vendors including systems from Lorex, Q-see and others that had a very attractive price point. Our conclusion is that these systems can not do what we want. Continue reading