Built for Community Policing Forums

Run your forum like a proper operation, not a WhatsApp group.

Beacon gives CPF executive committees, sector heads and patrollers one place to log incidents, roster patrols, brief SAPS liaisons and file the reports your provincial secretariat actually asks for. Residents get a one-tap emergency button that alerts their sector's patrollers directly.

Built and supported by CommunitySA — everything digital.

SECTOR LOG — WARD 14 LIVE
18:42 SECTOR A Evening patrol signed on — 4 patrollers
19:05 SECTOR B Streetlight outage reported, forwarded to ward councillor
19:31 SECTOR C Suspicious vehicle logged, SAPS liaison notified
20:14 SECTOR A Patrol closed — no further incidents
20:50 SECTOR B Community alert broadcast — road closure, Main Rd

1
app to replace the spreadsheet, the group chat and the paper register
24/7
incident log, visible to your whole executive committee
Ward-ready
reports formatted for your monthly CPF submission
Zero
spreadsheets nobody remembers the password to
Our Mission: to connect communities, CPF structures, patrollers and residents through one trusted digital platform that improves communication, strengthens coordination, simplifies incident and patrol management, and helps communities respond faster and work more effectively with SAPS. Our Vision: to build safer, stronger and more connected communities where residents, volunteers and public safety partners work together seamlessly, supported by technology that turns local information into coordinated action and measurable community impact.
What it does

Everything a forum's executive committee juggles, in one place.

Most CPFs run on a mix of WhatsApp, a notebook and whoever remembers to update the Excel sheet. Beacon replaces that with tools built around how forums actually operate.

📍

Incident logging & mapping

Patrollers log incidents from their phone, tagged to sector and time. Your secretary sees a running log instead of chasing voice notes.

🗓️

Patrol rosters

Build weekly patrol schedules by sector, send reminders to patrollers, and track who actually signed on and off.

🤝

Joinable patrols

Any patroller can schedule a patrol the rest of the sector can join — see who's signed up before you head out, instead of arriving to an empty street.

🎙️

SAPS liaison log

Keep a clean, timestamped record of what was reported to your station liaison officer — useful at every sector meeting.

📣

Community alerts

Push a broadcast to residents and patrollers by sector — road closures, safety notices, meeting reminders — without a group chat spiralling.

📌

Points of interest

Flag a house, business or vacant lot worth knowing about — patrollers in that sector see the address, notes and photos before they pass by.

🗂️

Member directory

One list of active patrollers, executive members and their sectors — no more asking "who has the latest spreadsheet".

📄

Meeting & compliance reports

Minutes, attendance and incident summaries export as a report formatted for your monthly submission.

🆘

Resident emergency button

Residents register in the app and get one button — tap it in a stressful situation and it alerts the patrollers covering their sector, with their location attached.

🛡️

Security company access

Your local security company gets one shared login to see incidents and alerts from the residents who've linked to them — no more chasing your armed response provider for updates.


How it works

Set up your forum in an afternoon.

STEP 1

Add your sectors

Map your ward into sectors, invite your executive committee and sector heads, and set who sees what.

STEP 2

Bring your patrollers on

Send an invite link to patrollers and residents. They join their sector and get alerts relevant to their area.

STEP 3

Run your first patrol

Log incidents live, close out the patrol, and watch your monthly report build itself in the background.

Preview

What patrollers and residents actually see.

Real screens from the app — no renders, no filler. This is what shows up on the phone once your forum is set up.

Duty screen showing a scheduled patrol, team size and total patrol hours

Sign on for a shift

Patrol times, team, and points of interest for the sector — before anyone sets foot outside.

Incidents screen showing a logged break-in report with time and location

Log an incident

Tagged to sector, time and location — a running record instead of a voice note nobody can find later.

Emergency alerts screen showing resolved sector alerts

Community alerts

Broadcasts reach patrollers and residents by sector, and stay on record once resolved.

Resident screen with a large Send Emergency Alert button

Resident emergency button

One tap alerts the patrollers covering their sector, with location attached.

"

Before Beacon, our incident record was three different notebooks and whoever's memory was best at the monthly meeting. Now the report writes itself.

CHAIRPERSON, RESIDENTIAL WARD CPF
Ready when you are

Get your forum running on Beacon.

Register now — no obligation, no jargon — and start setting up your sectors and bringing your committee on.

Register your forum