"Community Security Led by You and Me"

As a community, we are committed to ensuring the safety and security of our neighbourhood. The Hillcrest Wendy Street Group is a Non-Profit Company (NPC) set up to implement and manage community security projects, explore ways to collectively deter and reduce criminal activity in cost effective ways and pool resources to take action and create meaningful impact.

The Team

Camera Project

In late 2022, a number of residents of Hillcrest and Wendy Avenues got together and formed a plan to be proactive about security in our streets. Due to our proximity to Delta Park and the ease of escape for would-be criminals, we formed a taskforce to secure our perimeter. After consultations with Beagle Watch (being the most prevalent and active armed response company in our streets), we decided the best course of action would be to set up an AI-monitored camera perimeter to pre-empt any nefarious activity.

Basically, we have installed CCTV cameras at strategic entry points in and around Hillcrest and Wendy Avenues and these will be monitored through the Beagle Watch control room using their Artificial Intelligence software. Anything that is flagged by the software as suspicious is pushed through to human eyes on duty who then determine if the activity is worth acting on. If it is deemed so (and not a false alarm), the instruction is issued for officers to respond to the vicinity of the camera in question.

Our goal is to pre-empt criminal activity and heighten presence of security ahead of any incident instead of reacting to one. In doing so, we aim to make our cul-de-sac totally unattractive to criminal elements so that they move on to softer targets instead.

FAQ

WHAT IS THE CAMERA PROJECT ABOUT?

Installing security cameras at strategic points along our two streets, has strong potential to deter and reduce criminal activity. The project aims to install cameras covering vulnerable access points in our neighbourhood and leverage existing cameras too. Strategic cameras will be actively monitored by an external security company

HOW WILL THE CAMERA SET UP WORK?

To begin with we will install nine 80-meter range, network-based cameras. Additional privately-owned cameras at strategic points will also be added to this network and actively monitored. Cameras will monitor mainly pedestrian activity from the park into the two roads.

WHO WILL MONITOR THE CAMERAS?

For maximum effectiveness, cameras need to have high-resolution and artificial intelligence capabilities (learn faces, license plate numbers etc.), detect and notify when unusual or irregular ones appear. Community members will have access to cameras for monitoring, but more importantly an external company will be contractually onboarded to actively monitor the camera network.

WHAT ARE THE UPFRONT AND ONGOING COSTS?

In addition to the donated cameras, installation of the other cameras in phase 1 is budgeted at R22,500. The monitoring cost for the first 12 months of the project has been quoted at R550 per camera. The best way forward, from a cost, benefit and risk point of view, is to collect all installation and set-up costs and some monitoring costs, in an upfront contribution and to require a reduced monthly contribution to cover the shortfall in the monitoring charges. The total budget for the first 12 months is R95,100.

CAN RESIDENTIAL CAMERAS BE LINKED TO THE NETWORK?

Residential cameras can be added for street monitoring. These will need to be High resolution Hikvision cameras. UPS or backup power would be needed to maintain cameras during loadshedding. A minimum 50MB up and down is also required to ensure community and Beagle are able to monitor cameras. To the extent that these cameras provide community-wide value because they cover vulnerable or strategic areas, the monitoring costs will be paid for by the NPC. However, if a resident wishes their cameras to also be monitored by the security company at their own cost (R550 per month) they can also be connected to this network.

WHAT PAYMENT OPTIONS ARE AVAILABLE?

For this initiative to be successful collective community support and contributions are imperative. To this end we have made contributing easy with a variety of payment methods. The cheapest for the NPC, would be for all households to set up a recurring EFT directly into our bank account. The details can be found under the Important Documents tab. We have also set up a credit card payment gateway through YOCO. The latter option costs more in terms of bank charges, leaving less of your contribution for the NPC to use. We therefore encourage recurring EFTs.

Important Documents

Newsletters

Contribute

Becoming a voting member of our NPC requires:

A once off Upfront Contribution of R1,000 per household.

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Monthly contributions of R95 per household (or R950 per year upfront)

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If this does not suit your budget, no contribution is too small. Every contribution matters! However, if you wish to get login credentials to the live camera feeds for your own viewing, you are asked to make the minimum monthly contribution of R95.

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Account details:

Hillcrest Wendy street group

Standard Bank

Acc no. 10185093963

Branch code: 004305

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NB PLEASE PUT YOUR HOUSE NUMBER AND STREET NAME AS REFERENCE!

Alternatively, please feel free to use the credit card payment link below:

Get In Touch

Got any questions? Want to sign up to help? Most importantly, keen to contribute?

Click on the button below to email us