A homeowner's association in Matthews, North Carolina, is keeping track of every car that drives through the neighborhood. Charlie Clayton, who is president of the Wellington Woods HOA, said they have installed a license plate reader at the main entrance to the community.
The camera snaps of a photo of the license plate of every vehicle that enters Wellington Woods. The information is then stored on a computer system that residents have access to.
"It tells the license plate number, tells you the make of the car, sometimes will tell you the color, it's also seen this car 23 of the last 29 days," Clayton explained to WBTV.
He said that he decided to look into the license plate reader after a woman's house was broken into while she was in the shower.
"Someone broke into her house as she was in the shower," he said. "And it just scared the heck out of her."
Some residents were worried that the cameras were a violation of people's privacy. Clayton said that people do not have a right to privacy when driving on public roads.
"These are state roads," Clayton says. "You have no privacy traveling state roads. You have cameras up everywhere on state highways, federal highways."
Flock Systems, the company that installed the license plate reader, said that residents have the option to share the information with law enforcement on a case-by-case basis, or give the police direct access to the system.
The company said that many communities in North Carolina have recently installed license plate readers on their streets.
"There's been several communities in the last year that have signed up with Flock Safety, and really it just comes down to they want to capture evidence for police," Flock spokesperson Josh Thomas told WCNC.
The new cameras seem to be working. Clayton said that there have no reports of crime in the community since the camera was installed.
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