Terms and Conditions

1. Acceptance of these terms

By registering an organization, creating an account, or using the Beacon mobile app or website (together, the "Service"), you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions ("Terms"). If you're registering on behalf of a Community Policing Forum ("CPF" or "forum"), you confirm you have the authority to accept these Terms for that forum.

2. What Beacon is

Beacon is a platform that helps CPFs run patrols, log incidents, communicate with SAPS liaisons and residents, and manage their volunteers and committee. Each registered forum is a separate, isolated tenant — your forum's data is never shared with or visible to another forum.

3. Registering an organization

The person who registers a forum becomes its first administrator. You must provide accurate, current information about yourself and your forum. Administrators are responsible for inviting and managing the patrollers, other administrators, and residents who join their forum, and for keeping that information up to date.

4. Accounts and your responsibilities

You're responsible for keeping your password confidential and for all activity that happens under your account. Tell us immediately if you suspect unauthorised access. We may suspend or deactivate an account that we reasonably believe has been compromised, misused, or used to violate these Terms.

5. Subscription and billing

Beacon is priced per person, not per forum — administrators, patrollers, and residents are billed separately, so you only pay for who's actually using the Service. Current rates are shown on our Pricing page and may change from time to time; we'll give you reasonable notice before a change takes effect for your forum. No payment gateway is connected yet — registering does not charge you anything, and any first-month or trial arrangement will be honoured as stated at the time you registered.

6. Acceptable use

You agree not to use the Service to submit false incident reports, harass or defame any person, upload content you don't have the right to share, or attempt to access another forum's data or another account without authorisation. We may remove content or suspend accounts that violate this section.

7. Resident emergency button — important

Beacon's emergency button is a community tool, not an emergency service. Pressing it alerts the patrollers currently covering your sector — it does not contact SAPS, an ambulance service, or any other emergency responder, and there is no guarantee that a patroller is on duty, sees the alert, or can respond in time. In a genuine emergency, always contact SAPS (10111) or your local emergency number directly, in addition to or instead of using the app. Beacon and the forum you belong to are not liable for response times or outcomes related to use of the emergency button.

8. Data and privacy

Information you or your forum's members submit — incident reports, profiles, patrol logs, addresses and photos — is stored to provide the Service to your forum and is not shared with other forums. It may be visible to your forum's administrators, and to a linked SAPS representative or security company only where your forum or a resident has explicitly set that up. We use reasonable technical measures (including encrypted password storage) to protect this data, but no system is completely secure.

9. Intellectual property

Beacon, its logo, and the underlying software remain the property of CommunitySA. Registering a forum doesn't transfer any ownership of the Service to you — you retain ownership of the content your forum submits (incident reports, profiles, and similar), and grant us a licence to store and process it solely to provide the Service to you.

10. Suspension and termination

You may stop using the Service at any time. We may suspend or terminate a forum's access if these Terms are materially violated, if required by law, or if an account has been inactive and unpaid for an extended period, after reasonable notice where practical.

11. Disclaimer and limitation of liability

The Service is provided "as is". While we work to keep it reliable, we don't guarantee it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or available at all times. To the fullest extent permitted by law, CommunitySA is not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the Service, including — without limitation — any harm arising from delayed or missed incident reports, alerts, or emergency-button notifications.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make a material change, we'll take reasonable steps to let registered administrators know. Continuing to use the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms.

13. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa, and any dispute arising from them will be subject to the jurisdiction of the South African courts.

14. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Reach out via our Contact page.

This is a general-purpose starting point for a young platform and hasn't been reviewed by a lawyer — treat it as a placeholder to be reviewed by qualified legal counsel before relying on it for a live, paying product.