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Chaverim ALPR Platform

A community safety tool that helps Chaverim volunteers monitor neighborhood activity, investigate incidents, and support law enforcement with organized evidence.

The Problem

When incidents occur in our communities, critical questions arise:

  • "Was this vehicle seen in the area before?"
  • "Where else has this vehicle been spotted?"
  • "Can we track a vehicle's route through the neighborhood?"

Today, answering these questions requires manually reviewing hours of camera footage across multiple locations—if the footage even exists.

The Solution

The Chaverim ALPR Platform automatically captures and indexes license plates from cameras across the community, making this information instantly searchable and actionable.

For Incident Response:

  • Search any plate and instantly see where and when it was spotted
  • View vehicle routes on an interactive map
  • Provide law enforcement with organized, timestamped evidence

For Proactive Monitoring:

  • Create watchlists for vehicles of interest
  • Receive real-time alerts when watchlist vehicles are detected
  • Monitor multiple locations from a single dashboard

How It Works

flowchart LR subgraph edge["Edge Sites"] cam1[("ALPR Camera")] cam2[("ALPR Camera")] pi["Raspberry Pi<br/>Collector"] cam1 --> pi cam2 --> pi end subgraph central["Central Server"] api["API Server"] db[("Database")] alerts["Alert Engine"] api --> db api --> alerts end subgraph users["Users"] web["Web Dashboard"] mobile["Mobile App"] notify["Notifications"] end pi -->|"Detections"| api alerts --> notify db --> web db --> mobile

Edge Collectors at each site capture plates from cameras and buffer locally, ensuring no data is lost during internet outages. Central Server indexes all detections, matches against watchlists, and serves the web interface. Users access the system via browser or mobile, receiving real-time alerts for watchlist matches.

MVP Capabilities

The initial release provides:

  • Plate Search - Find any vehicle by full or partial plate number
  • Timeline View - See all sightings of a vehicle in chronological order
  • Map Visualization - View where a vehicle was spotted on an interactive map
  • Watchlist Alerts - Get notified when specific plates are detected
  • Multi-Camera Support - Works with Hikvision and Unifi cameras
  • Mobile Access - Full functionality on phones and tablets for field use
  • Offline Resilience - Edge collectors continue working during internet outages

Who It's For

  • Chaverim Coordinators - Manage watchlists, review alerts, coordinate response
  • Field Volunteers - Search plates and view information during patrols
  • Administrators - Manage users, cameras, and system configuration

Learn More

A project of Chaverim of Rockland