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One of the earliest coastal communities to employ license plate recognition software was the town of Manalapan, which had a system in place as early as 2014.
In South Palm Beach, which is patrolled by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, deputies now have access to license plate reader information in their vehicles, according to Town Manager Jamie Titcomb.
License plate readers have been used in the larger coastal cities for years, with Boca Raton placing cameras on police cars as early as 2011 and Delray Beach using fixed license plate readers at strategic locations since 2016 that provide officers in patrol cars access to alerts.
While Delray Beach uses a different system, several private communities in the city have Flock, giving Delray Beach police limited access to the system.
Lantana police, whose jurisdiction covers a portion of Hypoluxo Island, was one of the earliest local adaptors of the Flock system and late last year received Town Council approval to spend $251,600 on license plate recognition cameras for police cars and another $90,600 for 16 more cameras to be installed around town.
“Every law enforcement agency in our area is using license plate recognition systems to some degree,” Gulf Stream Police Chief Richard Jones said.
— Rich Pollack
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