NeighbourhoodWatch is a low-maintenance emergency alert system for community safety groups.

Doc status: Latest (rolling). See Versions for dated snapshots.

What this product is

• A mobile-first “panic button” style alerting system for neighbourhood groups.
• Users join a group only via invite code.
• In an emergency, a user triggers an alert; the system sends high-priority push notifications to the group.

What this product is not

• Not a social network.
• Not a continuous location-tracking platform.
• Not a store of sensitive address-level data.

Core workflow

1. A manager creates a group and generates an invite code.
2. A member installs the app, signs in, and joins using the invite code.
3. In an emergency, a member presses Trigger Alert.
4. Nearby group members receive a high-priority push notification.

Roles

• Member (standard user): can join via invite, register device for push, trigger alerts.
• Manager: can create groups/invites, broadcast, and pause/ban members.

Minimal UX principle

The app intentionally stays lean. The only core user flows are:

• Login
• Join group via invite
• Trigger alert
• Admin pause/ban/broadcast

Data minimisation

• No home addresses are collected.
• Avoid storing exact latitude/longitude where possible.
• Group association can be based on a coarse zone id rather than precise coordinates.

System components (at a glance)

• Mobile: Expo React Native app
• Admin: Next.js web console (manager actions)
• API: Cloudflare Worker API (all privileged actions verified server-side)
• Data: Firestore
• Push: FCM HTTP v1

Platforms

• Mobile: iOS + Android
• Admin: web (manager controls)

Note: iOS “Critical Alerts” require Apple entitlement approval.