The 87 gates at The Villages will soon be equipped with new technology.
- Villages approves automatic license plate recognition
- 260 gate cameras in The Villages
The Villages Amenity Authority Committee approved automatic license plate recognition, or LPR, earlier this month.
With the LPR system, law enforcement officials can enter a whole or partial license plate they are looking for and the cameras will search for that plate, alerting the Sumter County Sheriff's office if that plate has passed through the gates at The Villages.
"If we have someone who has gone missing, a loved one that's left home, driven away in a vehicle- we may be able to locate them through this License Plate Recognition System," said Community Watch Division Chief Bill Elliott.
There are about 260 gate cameras in The Villages.
Community Watch is responsible for gate operation and opening the gates daily for visitors.
The entire LPR system that includes fiber optics, cameras, and a new server cost over $2 million. That money comes from amenities expenditures.