If you're on the board of your homeowners association (HOA) or work for, say, an apartment complex or housing project, part of your role is to make your homes and/or neighborhoods as safe and secure as possible, right?
Are you familiar with automatic license plate recognition technology?
If so, it was probably within the context of law or parking enforcement. In the news, ALPR systems are most often tied to law enforcement agencies, border security units, physical security managers, or parking enforcement staffers at large entities like airports or casinos.
But here's why you—and your HOA board members or housing project colleagues—should consider investing in an ALPR system:
Yes, you read that correctly. After you purchase the equipment, you could send the feed directly to your local police officers along with a list of license plates that do belong in your neighborhood and any that you want to keep an eye on. Whenever they get a hit on a specified vehicle—or one that's already on their hot lists as being dangerous—they'll be able to respond in real time. (You'd also be doing them, and hence, your wider community, a favor by helping them catch criminals and stolen cars.)
When your Ring app alerts you to a robbery in the neighborhood next door, it's scary. When your neighbor tells you about a suspicious car making its way around your street, it's unnerving. Even if you already live in a gated community, there's a level of security that license plate recognition systems can provide that nothing else can: crystal clear images that law enforcement officers can use to weed out violent offenders. Everything from the vehicle make to the color to the license plate is captured in these images and stored. So you can let your neighbors (or residents) know that the ALPR is working around the clock to keep their homes safer.
According to iProperty Management's data, there are approximately 351,000 HOAs in the United States, comprising 40 million households and 100+ million individual residents. Now get this: They estimate the yearly collection of all HOAs totals $95.6 billion. That's a lot of money residents pay to keep their neighborhoods clean, safe, and under control, and in recent years, many have begun to realize the importance of investing some of that money in sophisticated security measures—like ALPRs. Same goes for apartment complexes. To keep the value of your residences high and your neighborhood feeling as safe as the one around the corner, this is one case where you actually should keep up with the Joneses.
As a leading ALPR manufacturer, we work with law enforcement agencies and other entities every day to make LPRs affordable, manageable, and easy to understand. Schedule a 30-minute consultation with our team and we'll fill you in on everything you need to know for your neighborhood or housing project.