LPR cameras coming to Royal Oaks community

Residents of the Royal Oaks community are putting criminals on notice: License plate recognition cameras will soon be watching.
Royal Oaks is the first neighborhood in Miami Lakes to install the technology that will alert the police when vehicles entering the neighborhood are linked to criminal activities, according to Town Manager Edward Pidermann.
Miami-Dade Police Major Javier Ruiz said the Royal Oaks community has experienced “several” vehicle and residential burglaries in the past year.
Police have used the cameras in town since 2018.
Pidermann said portable LPRs on trailers have been placed at two town entrances and officials are planning to add more cameras when the budget allows for them.
“They have been effective,” Pidermann said.
Said Ruiz, “We made over 10 arrests utilizing the cameras.”
Royal Oaks is a community of 666 homes between NW 170th Street and Northwest 162nd Street, on either side of Northwest 82nd Avenue. It is one of the town’s six special taxing districts. The districts levy assessments for special services and improvements.
On March 9, the town council approved a contract with LPR vendor Vigilant Solutions.
The taxing district will fund the $26,000 cost of the cameras that will be installed in Royal Oaks’ four gatehouses within 60 days, Pidermann said.
Though Royal Oaks has security guards in the gate houses, those guards may jot down license plates but may not have information about vehicles being sought by police.
Once the LPR system is operating, police can use the software to retrieve data, including photos of license plates and vehicles and the dates and times the cars drive through Royal Oaks.
Vigilant Solutions manages the database and only law enforcement officials can access it, according to Ruiz, who commands the police district in town.
Mayor Manny Cid said during the town meeting that for some time, residents have wanted their security enhanced.
Once the cameras are installed, “It’s going to make a huge difference,” Cid said.