HOA security is a top concern for many neighborhoods and their residents.

To combat rising crime rates, community managers may install entry gates and CCTV cameras, hire security personnel, or employ a host of other security solutions.

Each of these solutions can play an important role in enhancing neighborhood security. Yet they don’t capture a key piece of evidence law enforcement needs to prevent crimes or act when a crime does occur: license plates.

For this reason, license plate reader cameras can be a critical tool for any HOA to lower crime rates and bring peace of mind to homeowners. License plate reader cameras capture key details, including partial, covered, or missing plates and other identifying features of a vehicle.

Many HOA board members have already seen how effective license plate reader cameras can be in reducing crime and making their neighborhoods safer. Here’s why these communities choose license plate reader cameras for their HOA security needs.

Why Do License Plates Matter for HOA Security?

When crimes are committed, a key piece of actionable evidence police are often missing is a license plate number.

Up to 80% of unsolved property crimes could be solved with a license plate number. Additionally, 70% of crimes involve a vehicle. A license plate number can help law enforcement identify someone whose vehicle is spotted near the scene of a crime, giving them a clear direction to investigate.

Police can also use this information to find out if the plates or vehicle have been stolen or potentially involved in other crimes.

Flock’s license plate readers help HOAs proactively prevent crime, providing data-driven, actionable evidence to notify police of a stolen plate or unauthorized vehicle in the neighborhood. Flock Vehicle Fingerprint™ technology captures license plate information, make, model, color, aftermarket modifications, among other identifying vehicle details.

Meanwhile, your residents’ privacy is protected with Flock cameras. One hundred percent of the data captured belongs to you, can only be accessed by those with special permissions, and is deleted after 30 days. Residents can be added to a Safe List so their data won’t show up on searches for non-resident vehicles.

License Plate Reader Cameras Save HOAs Time and Money

The HOA board of Bel-Aire Estates, a neighborhood of 75 custom-built homes in Aurora, Colorado, knew that something needed to be done to improve HOA security. Located East of Denver, Aurora’s crime rate has seen a steady rise over the past ten years. While Bel-Aire Estates was fortunately not being targeted for violent crime, in 2018, the board decided that the increasing theft and property crime in the neighborhood needed to be checked.

Board President Richard Warshaw led the search for an HOA security solution, which included looking into gating and different types of neighborhood security cameras.

“We thought about gating the community, but unfortunately, one of the entrances would have been almost impossible to gate. Plus, the city told us if we gated the community, we would own the roads, which none of the residents wanted to be responsible for. And the whole thing was just ungodly expensive,” Richard explained.

Most of the neighborhood security cameras the Colorado neighborhood looked at had some major disadvantages — they required electric wiring or a major construction project. Most security companies required that the Bel-Aire board purchase the cameras, which would surely be outdated in a few years, and handle their own insurance and maintenance.

All of the security cameras they looked at had at least one major issue — except Flock Safety. Unlike its competitors, Flock Safety cameras are infrastructure-free, solar-powered, and connected to the cloud through LTE.

Flock also offers a unique security-as-a-service approach, including installation, maintenance, software updates, and customer support, all wrapped in one annual price. It was an easy decision, Richard said.