What's Wrong With Blackstone's Proposed Camera Policy

The Board mailed homeowners a proposed Camera Policy on May 8, 2026. Written comments are open until June 5. The Board meets May 25 at 7pm. (The May 25 meeting has been cancelled due to the Memorial Day holiday. Cancellation was communicated only after homeowners inquired about the missing agenda. The next meeting date has not been announced.)

This page is about the policy itself — what's in it, what's missing, and what it actually authorizes. The separate question of whether the Board followed the Bylaws when it installed the cameras in the first place is covered elsewhere on this site.

The policy has thirteen substantive problems. They group into four themes.

I. The policy contradicts itself.

  • Specific Guideline 1 says: "There shall be no real-time monitoring of the footage captured on the cameras by Board Members, management or other parties." General Guideline 4 says: "Access to the video shall be limited to those authorized by the Board of Directors and law enforcement officials."

    A Board majority can authorize access — including real-time access — that Specific Guideline 1 claims to prohibit. The prohibition is overridable by the entity it's supposed to restrain. Separately, the camera system itself is technically real-time: footage streams continuously to the vendor's cloud servers regardless of whether the Board "watches." The policy's promise is behavioral, not architectural.

  • Inappropriate Uses #5 prohibits cameras in "pool bathrooms and/or other areas designed and generally used for dressing." The pool deck itself — where children change in and out of swimwear, where minors spend the summer in swimsuits — is not "designed for dressing" in a technical sense, so it's not excluded. Four dome cameras are pointed at it. One at the kids' pool. The carve-out is drafted narrowly enough to permit exactly what it appears to forbid.

  • Rule Change 8: "Owners need not apply for architectural approval with respect to security cameras or sensory lights." Camera Policy Section I.2: "the owner must … obtain prior written approval from the Association's Board of Directors. A proper and complete application must be submitted to the Board for review and written approval prior to installation of the camera."

    Same envelope. Direct contradiction. Members are being asked to comment on an internally inconsistent rule package.

II. The policy authorizes surveillance creep beyond stated purpose.

  • General Guideline 1: footage is used "exclusively for law and/or governing document enforcement purposes only." Goal #4: "Violations to Governing Documents and California Law." Specific Guideline 1.d allows video review when "a violation of the Association's governing documents is observed or reported."

    Governing documents cover parking, pets, trash cans, holiday decorations, pool rules, signage, paint colors. The cameras are licensed to enforce all of it. This is not vandalism prevention. It is an enforcement camera system for HOA rules, sold as a safety camera system for crimes.

    A Board majority can authorize access — including real-time access — that Specific Guideline 1 claims to prohibit. The prohibition is overridable by the entity it's supposed to restrain. Separately, the camera system itself is technically real-time: footage streams continuously to the vendor's cloud servers regardless of whether the Board "watches." The policy's promise is behavioral, not architectural.

  • Specific Guideline 2.e: "The Board may release still photographs taken from security video for the purpose of identifying a person or persons of interest related to an apparent crime or governing document violation." A "person of interest" for a governing document violation can have their photo released by Board majority vote. Parking in the wrong spot is a governing document violation.

    The minor carveout in the same section says if the Board "knows or suspects" the unidentified person is under 18, it "shall endeavor" to post photos that don't reveal the violation. "Endeavor" is not "shall not." Photos of minors can be released; only the violation itself is redacted.

  • Specific Guideline 2.b: "Video shall not be released to owners, residents or other parties except upon court order." Specific Guideline 2.a: "Any Board member may release security video to any law enforcement officer." Specific Guideline 2.c lets the Board view video to identify residents via key-fob records.

    The Board can see you, identify you, and hand the footage to police. You cannot see footage of yourself without suing for it. The asymmetry isn't incidental — it's the design. Same envelope. Direct contradiction. Members are being asked to comment on an internally inconsistent rule package.

III. The policy doesn't say what it needs to say.

  • General Guideline 5: "Videos shall be retained until they are automatically overwritten." No duration is specified. The Association has separately confirmed the retention policy is still being drafted by counsel. Members are asked to comment on a policy whose retention schedule is being written in parallel and not disclosed. The vendor's cloud retention is configurable from 30 days to over a year. The Board has unilateral, undisclosed authority over how long footage persists.

  • The minor carveout in the same section says if the Board "knows or suspects" the unidentified person is under 18, it "shall endeavor" to post photos that don't reveal the violation. "Endeavor" is not "shall not." Photos of minors can be released; only the violation itself is redacted.

  • Section I.11 requires owners installing their own cameras to indemnify the Association against all claims. Section II contains no parallel obligation running the other way. If common-area footage is breached, leaked, sold, or misused, the policy is silent on what residents are owed, what breach-notification timelines apply, or what remedies exist. The indemnity flows one way.The Board can see you, identify you, and hand the footage to police. You cannot see footage of yourself without suing for it. The asymmetry isn't incidental — it's the design. Same envelope. Direct contradiction. Members are being asked to comment on an internally inconsistent rule package.

  • 10. No needs assessment. No incident data. No cost-benefit analysis.

    The policy's stated goals are vandalism, property crimes, personal crimes, and governing-document violations. Not a single statistic, incident report, or trend analysis from Blackstone is referenced. The policy doesn't argue that the cameras are responsive to actual problems — it asserts the goals as self-justifying. Members have no basis on which to evaluate whether the surveillance is proportionate to any documented harm.

IV. The standards are reversed.

  • Owner cameras: pan/tilt/zoom "strictly prohibited" (Section I.3.c). The owner's camera "shall never be directed at windows of adjacent structures, neighboring or common property" and "shall never be directed toward other residents, including minor children" (Section I.2.b).

    Association cameras: no equivalent restrictions. Association cameras are explicitly aimed at common areas where residents are, including the pool deck. The standard the policy imposes on owners is the standard the Association violates with its own deployment.

  • Cameras shall not be used for "voyeurism," "personal matters or agendas," or "to intentionally embarrass or harass a resident." Who decides whether a use is voyeuristic or political? The Board. Who audits the Board? Nobody. There is no access log, no third-party oversight, no member right to inspect who viewed what footage when. The prohibitions are unenforceable against the only entity capable of violating them.

  • General Guideline 3: areas under camera use must be "clearly identified with a sign." California law treats notice and consent as distinct. Posting a sign that says "you are being recorded" does not constitute consent to AI analytics, cloud retention, third-party data sharing, or law enforcement disclosure. The policy uses signage to create the impression of resident agreement while extracting none.

What we're asking for

The proposed Camera Policy is not adequate to govern the surveillance system already installed at Blackstone. Before it is adopted, we are asking the Board to:

Pause installation of the remaining cameras pending member input.

Release the vendor contract and full cost breakdown to the membership, as required by Bylaw §6.5.

Hold the homeowner vote required by Bylaws §2.9.2 and §2.9.3 before any further deployment.

Withdraw the Camera Policy from the current rule packet and re-circulate it as a standalone §4360 notice with its own 28-day comment period, given the scope and technical complexity of common-area surveillance.

What you can do before June 5

  • Attend the Board meeting on May 25 at 7pm. (The May 25 meeting has been cancelled due to the Memorial Day holiday. Cancellation was communicated only after homeowners inquired about the missing agenda. The next meeting date has not been announced.)