Hamptons HOA president Ed Perez looks on as Flock Safety installs one of seven solar-powered license plate reader cameras near the corner of Club Center Drive and Portage Way. / NatomasBuzz.com Photo
BY BRANDY TUZON BOYD
THE NATOMAS BUZZ | @natomasbuzz
NatomasBuzz.com Photo
One neighborhood in Natomas is taking proactive steps to help track down law breakers.
The Hamptons homeowners association this week installed seven license plate reader security cameras along its borders. The cameras will operate 24-hours a day, seven days a week.
“Recently, we have seen an uptick in the number of reports of vehicles doing ‘donuts’ on our streets, vehicles failing to stop at pedestrian crosswalks or stop signs, and other issues involving vehicles,” Hamptons HOA president Ed Perez explained.
The Hamptons includes nearly 1,300 single-family homes in the area roughly bounded by Greg Thatch Circle and Valley Oak Park to the north, Harbor Cove Way to the south, Westhampton Falls Way to the east and Highway 99 and East Commerce Drive to the west.
Perez said The Hamptons contracts with Allied Universal Services for private patrol and on-call security dispatch services, but security officers cannot be at every place at once.
“So, we needed another resource to fill the gap,” he said.
Perez pointed to statistics which he said shows that 70% of crimes are committed with the assistance of a vehicle.
“One critical factor that hampers investigations of these crimes is the lack of evidence — particularly the inability to obtain the vehicle’s license plate,” Perez said. “This is why these (license plate reader) cameras will be a game-changer for us.”
Seven license reader cameras have been installed in the Hamptons neighborhood of Natomas. / Map courtesy Hamptons HOA.
The Hamptons homeowners association board voted in November 2020 to authorize the installation of the seven cameras, making it one of only a handful of communities in the greater Sacramento region to have this system. (Neighboring senior, gated community Heritage Park has cameras mounted at its entrance.)
The solar-powered, LTE-enabled cameras installed by Flock Safety are entirely automatic and activated by motion. The cameras have been positioned to record all vehicles entering and leaving the Hamptons neighborhood.
“The Hamptons board decided not to activate the functionality that automatically links our system to law enforcement (or our security company),” said Perez. “However, we can and will share the data on an as-needed basis and in the future, we can always consider turning on this feature.”
Perez explained that the license plate reader cameras will be recording activity on the public roadways where there is generally no expectation of privacy.
“However, the Hamptons board is still committed to ensuring that the data from the system is used for the limited purpose of ensuring the safety and security of our residents and guests,” he said.
This data, Perez said, will be stored on a cloud server which is only accessible by those authorized by the homeowners association board.
“Currently, one of the most frustrating issues that impacts our ability to address crimes or nuisances involving a vehicle is the inability to capture the license plate so that the driver or owner can be identified,” Perezsaid. “These license plate reader cameras will be able to do this 24/7 and provide us the ability to search for a suspect vehicle even with limited information such as the vehicle’s make, color, or partial plate number.”
Perez said the board will review the success of the first seven cameras and, if needed, add more in the future.
One of the seven new license plate reader cameras installed on Kankakee Drive in the Hamptons neighborhood. / NatomasBuzz.com Photo
Map of The Hamptons neighborhood in Natomas.
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