Tailgating, when a car follows another car that is authorized to enter a private area too closely, is a serious security breach affecting gated communities that don’t use license plate recognition. It starts innocently: a resident is tailgated by another resident who’s simply in a hurry, or a resident is tailgated by his visitor. Unfortunately, such practices can lead to several incidents and even crime.
If you are experiencing this problem with your residential gated community, then it’s time for you to adopt an automatic license plate recognition system.
What is an automatic license plate recognition system?
It is a security technology that captures an image or video of a vehicle and its license plate number, regardless of whether the car is moving or a full stop. Once captured, the software analyzes and saves the information in a centralized cloud database that only authorized personnel can access.
How your community can benefit from automated license plate recognition
Installing anti-tailgating hardware solutions like barrier gates is one way to tackle tailgating problems. These regulate vehicle entry by only allowing access to one vehicle at a time. While it’s a great solution, it can be costly and cause traffic within your community, irking residents.
If you want to mitigate tailgating more conveniently while increasing security, your community will experience more benefits from installing this system.
1. It keeps track of unauthorized visitors more effectively
Tracking license plate numbers using a good old-fashioned logbook can be challenging with tailgating, especially at night. You have to strain your eyes and exhaust your hands to manually keep up with every vehicle entering and exiting your community’s premises. However, with automated license plate recognition, you can easily keep track of each vehicle more effectively.
Through your community’s security cameras, it will take a still photo of the license plate and the entire vehicle of each one that enters and leaves the premises 24/7. Not only that, but it will also record the time and date that photo or video was captured. You can also run very detailed reports such as on-premise reports, time-on-site reports, and unregistered vehicle reports just to name a few. Here’s an example of some reports you should expect from a capable residential license plate recognition system:
2. It stores information more efficiently
Do you always feel the need to verify the contents in your security log book due to penmanship issues or human errors committed in the past? How long does it take you to retrieve needed data, especially in emergencies? With automatic license plate recognition, you can now store and retrieve information more efficiently.
The software will analyze and interpret the information into alphanumeric machine-readable text called Optical Character Recognition once it captures an image of a vehicle and its plate number. It will then store the information in a centralized cloud system that only authorized personnel can access anytime and anywhere. And when an emergency issue arises, it can help you retrieve information quickly and report to authorities immediately.
3. It’s convenient for your residents
Verifying plate numbers manually is not only a waste of time. It also causes inconvenience to your residents by increasing wait time and promoting traffic. With automated license plate recognition, however, you can whitelist the license plate numbers of authorized persons in your community.
Now, you and your residents can finally enjoy a seamless check-in experience while still allowing you to keep track of who’s who.
Learn more
There are more ways your community can benefit from automatic license plate recognition. In fact, tailgating is just one problem it can help solve. If you want to know more about how this technology can tighten security while keeping things convenient, then schedule a demo with us today.
Are you a property manager or HOA board member looking to upgrade your community access control systems ? Learn more about Proptia’s features by booking a demo with one of our consultants.
Sources:
Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR), WhatIs.com
Tailgating Explained, DrivingTestTips.biz