Neighborhood Guard Annual Meeting

It is time for Neighborhood Guards annual meeting. Member organizations have already been contacted directly by email and in some cases by phone.

Prospective members and other interested parties are welcome to the public meeting which is held on

Wednesday October 29 at 7:00pm
Sunrise Assisted Living
11889 Skyline Blvd, Oakland, CA 94619

Agenda

  • Wine & Cheese Reception
  • Call to order
  • Quorum Count
    • Introduction of Board Members
    • Review of Accomplishments
    • Chairman’s Report
    • Financial Report
    • Election
    • What’s coming up in 2015
  • Close of Meeting

Examples of current Hardware will be shown together with the unveiling of the new Weatherproof box for a more elegant and less intrusive installation.

Neighborhood Guard Gets Local Hero Award

The entire board of Neighborhood Guard had been nominated to the Local Hero award in Oakland.

The award ceremony was on February 8th, 2014 and it was an honor to be among so many pillars of the community.

The award was given by Oakland Councilmember Libby Schaaf who is a frontrunner in the Mayor of Oakland election.

Neighborhood Guard chair Jesper “JJ” Jurcenoks accepted the award on behalf of the entire board.

Neighborhood Guard Chair Jesper "JJ" Jurcenoks thanks all the volunteers who helped make us a Local Hero

Neighborhood Guard Chair Jesper “JJ” Jurcenoks thanks all the volunteers who helped make us a Local Hero – with Oakland Mayor top Candidate Libby Schaaf  on the right.

To everyones surprise Nancy Skinner’s aide also presented Neighborhood Guard with a
California Legislature “Certificate of Recognition” for “you outstanding contributions, leadership and activism in our community.” signed by both Rob Bonta, Assemblymember, 18th Californian District, and Nancy Skinner, assemblymember, 15th Californian District

 

Community Security Cameras and Privacy

A typical concern in many neighborhoods is regarding privacy.

  1. We don’t want Police/FBI/Government to be able keep us under surveillance.
    • I escaped from suppressive regime to freedom loving USA, this feels like back under Stasi
  2. We don’t want Criminals to be able to use our cameras to stalking/see when we are vulnerable.
    • I don’t want my creepy neighbor know when I am home alone as most victims of rape are raped by someone they know.

Peeping

These concerns and every variation should be discussed before every neighborhood joins Neighborhood Guard. Some people wants to share the images with everybody and the only way to get an understanding about why that might not be the best solution is to openly discuss the concerns and find a level that everyone is comfortable with.

Here is Neighborhood Guards Guidelines to every neighborhood.

  1. Images are NEVER shared with Police/Feds/NSA automatically and indiscriminately – E.g. Never give your login and password to a police officer and tell them to just take what they need.
  2. Each neighborhood determines themselves what they want to share and with whom on a case by case decision.
  3. Only a select small trusted group of individuals (NG recommend 3-5) from each neighborhood review the images when a crime happens, this group is chosen and ratified by the entire neighborhood.
  4. A strict policy is written, shared, communicated AND followed on when and how images are disseminated.
  5. Cameras CANNOT be used to check what time teen/spouse came home.
  6. Images only retrieved when Crime or clearly suspicious activity happens and are never monitored except for system maintenance.
  7. Images are only shared with the police according to the agreed upon guidelines.
  8. All other transfer of images to government requires a court order

Sometimes there will still be that one individual in the neighborhood who is just against cameras no matter what you do. It happens in the best neighborhoods. Please don’t enforce your fees, views and regulations on that person.

Please gently tell them: “You are not required to participate, We believe so strongly in this idea that we are moving forward without you. If you are a victim of a crime the images will still be used for your benefit.”

Some people would rather just be let alone and I empathize fully with them.
The other day I got a somewhat paradoxical email from a shy neighbor asking: “How can I influence the decision on cameras without participating?”

The answer was easy:
====================
Thank you for your interest in and concern about crime prevention.

As a resident in our neighborhood there are no requirements for participating in our neighborhood crime prevention organization, there is no fee and no home ownership requirement. Most people participate by showing up to our meetings. Some participate through email and others again let their voice be heard through more active members whom they trust.
====================

 

City Camp Oakland for Activist Crime Fighters

City Camp Oakland for Activist Crime Fighters

Last year I attended City Camp Oakland at the City Hall, it was a buzzing day of concerned citizens, Volunteer Activists and city employees.

One of the Main themes are how can technology make our city better.

One of my experiences was on how city and county can make data available for citizens and how the citizens can use this data for things that had not been imagined before.

I would like to invite all members of Neighborhood Guard to join me for this year’s City Camp Oakland at the City Hall on this Saturday.

Please sign up here http://citycampoak.org/

This is your opportunity to share and improve your ideas on crime reduction, get access to crime stats in the right format and to press for access to list of wanted license plates.

This is where we recruit volunteer programmers for our cause.

Hoping to see many of you on Saturday.

Jesper Jurcenoks
neighborhood Guard

Neighborhood Guard Bylaws

The Neighborhood Guard Board has release the new Bylaws.

Bylaws Image

New Organizations wishing to join Neighborhood Guard must agree and adhere to the Bylaws.

The Bylaws can be changed by the members of Neighborhood Guard, (details in section 14 of the bylaws), we expect you to actively work with us to make the bylaws better every year.

First chance for changing the bylaws will be at the Annual Members meeting in October (Section 7 of the Bylaws)

If you have suggestions or proposal for changes to the bylaws make sure you submit them well in advance before the meeting so that they can make it into the notice for the meeting. (Section 8 and 14 of the Bylaws)

The current Board agrees that the Bylaws as they stand are “wordy” and could use additional editing to make them shorter and friendlier to read. If you are a wordsmith, legal-eagle or just likes fixing bylaws, please join our Bylaws Committee 😉

PDF Version of the bylaws. Neighborhood Guard Bylaws.v1 – Signed

Neighborhood Guard going Non-profit!

Hi Friends of Neighborhood Guard.Neighborhood Guard Logo

We have been doing a lot of soul-searching here lately, and Wednesday evening the Interim Board of Neighborhood Guard unanimously decided to turn Neighborhood Guard into a 501(c)3 Non-profit instead of a COOP as originally planned.

Why this change?

  1. A non-profit is easier to understand when we explain it
  2. Tax deductible donations (Yeah!)
  3. Simpler bylaws, less accounting headaches.
  4. Closer spiritually to our core values of Community, Security and Volunteering.
  5. We had already agreed to stay out of politics (a requirement for 503(c)3 non-profits) Continue reading

OpenOakland and Neighborhood Guard.

Last night I met some very nice people from the OpenOakland Brigade of Code for America, these are grassroots who volunteer their time to solve our city’s problems through the use of technology, within their framework there is a group focused on reducing crime through volunteering and the use of technology. Basically our kind of people. Continue reading