What this site is, how it's made, and how to reach us.

About

The HOA Safety Playbook is a curated compilation (a refinement and roundup) of camera-related safety issues, resources, and governance guidance for HOA managers, property managers, community board members, and neighborhood safety leaders.

We gather and summarize public reporting, case studies, and practical guidance so community leaders can make calmer, better-informed decisions about cameras, ALPR, and community safety. We do not make product recommendations and we do not promise crime reduction.

Scope

Coverage begins with San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose, San Mateo County, Santa Clara County, Alameda County, Contra Costa County, and Sacramento. Additional Northern California cities and counties will be added as coverage capacity allows.

Methodology

Sources we use

• Police and sheriff department websites and official public statements.
• City and county press releases and public meeting materials.
• Reputable local news publications.
• Public crime-data portals and government transparency dashboards.
• Publicly accessible vendor case studies (clearly labeled Vendor-Reported).

We do not bypass logins, paywalls, CAPTCHAs, robots.txt restrictions, or platform access controls. Our researchers can only reach material that is publicly accessible.

Verification states

• Verified. Supported by an official agency source, or by two credible independent sources.
• Single-Source Report. One attributable and credible public source.
• Vendor-Reported. Described by the technology provider or a customer case study; not independently confirmed.
• Developing. Facts or outcome remain incomplete.

Language

We do not say technology "solved" a crime unless the underlying source explicitly supports that conclusion. We prefer precise language: generated an alert, helped identify a vehicle, provided an investigative lead, contributed evidence, was cited by police as assisting the investigation.

Safety and privacy

• We do not publish victim names unless already broadly public and essential to the story.
• We do not publish exact residential addresses. Map locations are generalized.
• We do not publish license plate numbers.
• We do not identify minors.
• We do not infer guilt. Allegations, arrests, charges, and convictions are labeled differently.
• We note meaningful privacy, governance, and civil-liberties concerns where relevant.

Editorial process

Every discovered item enters an internal review queue before publication. Reviewers can approve, edit, request another source, reject, or mark as a duplicate. Confidence scores reflect a reviewer's assessment of source quality and corroboration, not statistical probability.

Corrections

If a published story contains a factual error, misattribution, or an outdated status (for example, charges dropped, an arrest reversed, or a source retracted), we want to know. Include the story URL, the specific text at issue, and a citation to the correct information.

Send corrections to corrections@hoasafetyplaybook.com.

How we handle corrections

• Substantive corrections are labeled and dated on the story page.
• If a story's central claim is retracted, the story is either updated or withdrawn.
• We do not silently edit substantive text.

Contact

General inquiries, guide topic suggestions, and press: contact@hoasafetyplaybook.com

Corrections: corrections@hoasafetyplaybook.com