How solar-powered ALPR cameras help protect your community

Did you know that this year’s theme for Earth Day 2022 is Invest in Our Planet? It calls on businesses, individuals, and government agencies alike to invest in green innovations to build a more resilient economy and world. 

Though many countries and financial players recently made ambitious commitments at the UN climate summit 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) to help reach net-zero emissions, the World Bank concluded that cities account for over 70% of global CO2 emissions. The bigger consensus? Low-carbon and resilient urban development is critical for reducing emissions and tackling climate change.

This is why green tech options such as solar-powered cameras are fast becoming the go-to for city-wide security initiatives. In this blog, we’ll dive into the benefits of solar-powered cameras and explore how some of the latest automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) technologies are helping law enforcement and public safety agencies move sustainability goals forward.

Why law enforcement and city agencies choose solar-powered devices

Investing in green tech isn’t something new. Many progressive city agencies understand the responsibility they bear in reducing global emissions and have already made significant efforts to spearhead renewable energy projects and procure more sustainable solutions.

Even the technologies used to safeguard a city are being assessed with energy efficiency in mind. For instance, when given the choice, many law enforcement and public safety agencies are homing in on solar-powered cameras for their city-wide security initiatives.

The most obvious benefit of solar-powered cameras is that they are energy efficient. They come with small solar panels which continually draw energy from the sun to charge built-in batteries.

Since solar-powered devices don’t need a traditional power source or cabling, there’s no need to build additional infrastructure, redesign the city environment, or mess around with green spaces.

Law enforcement agencies can quickly install the cameras in remote locations, or anywhere they need them. They can also easily move them around to different locations in the city, as their active investigations or objectives change.

Police departments also appreciate the cost efficiency of solar-powered cameras. Having an off-grid, easy-to-deploy, infrastructure-free solution reduces the total cost of ownership and helps them maximize their budget and resources.

New solar-powered ALPR solutions amp up sustainability and crime-fighting efforts

Talking about solar-powered cameras isn’t limited to video surveillance applications. Countless law enforcement agencies use automatic license plate recognition solutions to strengthen vehicle-centric investigations, day and night. And to capitalize on the same benefits above, they actively seek out renewable energy options when shopping around for the right ALPR solution.

For instance, since we’ve released the AutoVu Cloudrunner™ solution, many law enforcement agencies have expressed interest in our solar-powered ALPR camera option, CR-H2.

Since there’s no wiring or electricity needed for the solar-powered AutoVu Cloudrunner camera, installation is a breeze. They can start collecting vehicle leads in just a few minutes and easily move the device into different crime hotspots when needed. They can also leverage that ease of moveability to set up a virtual stakeout in any location, at any time of the day or night.

With the CR-H2 solar-powered camera, law enforcement agencies are getting a truly sustainable vehicle-centric investigations solution. That’s because the CR-H2 camera has been optimized for low power consumption at the edge, relying on the cloud for the more intensive ALPR analytics processing.

Further optimizations ensure the ALPR device is always running but only captures information when a vehicle is detected. All of this heightens the energy efficiency of the device, ensuring that even when there’s little to no sun to charge batteries, the device will keep working for almost two days.

Reducing energy consumption and costs with AutoVu Cloudrunner

Choosing green tech options not only helps a city reduce carbon emissions. It’s a more affordable choice that allows agencies to take budgets farther and invest in other vital resources.

For instance, the entire AutoVu Cloudrunner solution is available for a low yearly subscription. This includes easy access to a web-based user portal, the solar-powered camera, as well as remote configuration and technical support.

So, while all the infrastructure and power savings add up, the move to a more affordable operational expense makes this technology much more accessible to all law enforcement agencies, big and small.