When families look for a new home, one of the first factors they consider is the safety of the neighborhood. How safe do you feel in your neighborhood? What actions do you take to reduce crime in the area?

There are numerous ways to promote neighborhood safety and protect your community. Investing in technology like Flock Safety’s license plate readers provide an extra set of eyes for law enforcement that will ultimately help police officers solve crimes.

License plate cameras promote neighborhood safety

In a world that relies so heavily on technology, we see homeowners taking security into their own hands. Many homeowners today have technology in place to keep them safe. For instance, homeowners use security alarm systems, with alerts going directly to their cell phones. Within the last year, Ring brand doorbells and cameras became increasingly popular and provided critical data to police with the holiday porch pirate trend.

Is there anything more you can do to prevent crime in your community? Thanks to Flock Safety’s license plate readers, yes, there is!

Here are some of the ways license plate readers can help reduce crime in your community:

Hot List Alerts

How many times have you had to look for a specific license plate? Or, how often do you hear about law enforcement searching for a particular license plate? Police keep a database of license plates they are actively searching for, whether because it belongs to a stolen vehicle or because the individual who owns the car is wanted for crime.

With automatic license plate readers, all police have to do is pre-load a list of license plates they are looking for, and the system sends an alert to patrol officers. These systems can alert officers of any vehicle at large for known or suspected involvement in a burglary or theft, or even more serious cases such as stolen vehicles or kidnappings and assaults. License plate readers will notify law enforcement whenever a flagged vehicle enters your community, keeping your neighborhood free from crime.

Collect Evidence

License plates are a crucial piece of evidence that can help solve crimes. In Sandy Springs, Georgia, for example, a neighborhood used the Flock Safety camera system to find evidence following a home burglary. Once local law enforcement connected the time of the break-in to the images of the suspect’s vehicle leaving the neighborhood, they were able to use this crucial evidence to solve the case.

Flock Safety license plate readers are also helping to solve cold cases. An aggravated assault case in Marietta, Georgia was solved because of the evidence provided by Flock Safety. Officers arrived on the scene after the incident was committed, and the victim was able to provide the suspect’s license plate information. When the suspect returned to the community, the Flock security system notified the police officers, who were then able to get to the location, find the suspect, and take them into custody.

Prevent Car Theft

Car break-ins happen even in the safest neighborhoods. First of all, take steps to prevent car break-ins: always lock your vehicles and don’t keep any valuables in your car.

License plate readers also happen to be one of the best ways to prevent car break-ins. Unfortunately, theft usually doesn’t happen to one person in a neighborhood; car theft will typically affect quite a few people when it happens. Flock Safety cameras provide a visual deterrent that encourage theft opportunists to look elsewhere. If an individual has a record and their license plate is flagged, anytime that vehicle enters the neighborhood, officers are alerted and ready to follow up.

Take the initiative to keep your community safe

Flock Safety is helping neighborhood associations and law enforcement reduce crime rates in cities and neighborhoods all over the country. Learn more about the crimes Flock Safety has helped resolve. Take the initiative and invest in neighborhood safety technology that really works for your community.

Want to learn more about Flock cameras? Check out our FAQs!