Hmmmm check this out... FLOCK Safety LPR

[sdkid]

Madison South Dakota installed several of these self-contained and self-powered units..

What do you suppose this hardware is like?

Flock Safety

www.flocksafety.com

New license plate readers catch 2 stolen cars in Madison

Cameras that can read the license plates of cars passing by have been installed in Madison. They can even detect things like stolen cars and warrants.

www.keloland.com

 

[wittaj]

Has been discussed before:

anyone looked at "Flock Safety" or similar systems?

After a number of local incidents, our neighborhood got motivated to form a safety committee. Being known as "that guy with all the cameras" I was asked to provide some input on someone's suggestion of the "Flock Safety" neighborhood camera system. Flock Safety : Keep the whole neighborhood...

ipcamtalk.com

Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

And let's not forget to add this million dollar plus mistake LOL: https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/10/22/ohio-has-to-change-license-plates-because-of-regrettable-mistake/ So I posted this viral mistake earlier in the thread about how Ohio had screwed up the design of the airplane LOL. But...

ipcamtalk.com

WHO CAN ID THIS POLE-MOUNTED EQUIPMENT ?

First noticed this installation 1-2 years ago. Recently have begun seeing several more around town. They are mounted on utility poles 15-20' above ground alongside well travelled public roads, aimed at passing traffic. These appear to be self-contained and powered by pole mounted...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[sdkid]

Has been discussed before:

anyone looked at "Flock Safety" or similar systems?

After a number of local incidents, our neighborhood got motivated to form a safety committee. Being known as "that guy with all the cameras" I was asked to provide some input on someone's suggestion of the "Flock Safety" neighborhood camera system. Flock Safety : Keep the whole neighborhood...

ipcamtalk.com

Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

And let's not forget to add this million dollar plus mistake LOL: https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/10/22/ohio-has-to-change-license-plates-because-of-regrettable-mistake/ So I posted this viral mistake earlier in the thread about how Ohio had screwed up the design of the airplane LOL. But...

ipcamtalk.com

WHO CAN ID THIS POLE-MOUNTED EQUIPMENT ?

First noticed this installation 1-2 years ago. Recently have begun seeing several more around town. They are mounted on utility poles 15-20' above ground alongside well travelled public roads, aimed at passing traffic. These appear to be self-contained and powered by pole mounted...

ipcamtalk.com

Pretty amazing how much money they are getting for equipment that can't reliably get plate pics at night.

 

[wtimothyholman]

As someone told me, it's essentially a trail cam with solar power and a cellular modem attached. It has to be mounted very close to the road. The infrared illumination wavelength is 850nm, which is creating a lot of problems with several states using 3M's license plate printing process, as the reflectivity between the lettering and the background is almost identical under 850nm IR. There's almost no contrast.

Flock Safety has claimed they fixed the IR contrast issue in software. What I've heard is that their software updates have provided some marginal improvements, but the cameras still miss a lot of plates.

 

[sebastiantombs]

New Jersey has gone to the crappy 3M plates, too. I see lots of them on the road now. I may turn in my old plates for a set of the new ones, there are some advantages to them

 

[wtimothyholman]

New Jersey has gone to the crappy 3M plates, too. I see lots of them on the road now. I may turn in my old plates for a set of the new ones, there are some advantages to them

The 3M process is completely capable of producing plates that are visible under 850nm infrared light, but it requires making some intelligent design choices, which seem to be entirely missing with the people managing the process in most states.

 

[wittaj]

The 3M process is completely capable of producing plates that are visible under 850nm IR light, but it requires making some intelligent design choices, which seem to be entirely missing with the people managing the process in most states.

There is the quote for the next news story

 

[sdkid]

The story grabbed my attention since I just received my z12 the other day. In the story-- they said they were spending $25k on the cams, trying out 25 of them and KEEPING 10. I wonder if they told the voters there it was going to be a YEARLY expense...

 

[wtimothyholman]

The story grabbed my attention since I just received my z12 the other day. In the story-- they said they were spending $25k on the cams, trying out 25 of them and KEEPING 10. I wonder if they told the voters there it was going to be a YEARLY expense...

$25,000 per year is much less than the cost of a single additional officer. Properly located, they'll be far more effective than that extra officer, too. Plus Flock Safety handles all the maintenance and repair.

In the bigger picture, it's money well spent.