Need camera suggestions - identifying license plates and faces of animal dumpers

[adoptdontshop]

I am a relative IP Cam noob so forgive me in advance! I handle general IT and building maintenance with a nonprofit Dog/Cat Rescue. Currently we are having a serious issue where animals are being dumped after-hours illegally, long story short, we don't take animals from the public, we take animals from the city shelters, primarily animals on critical lists at risk of being put down.

Our current camera which was put up long before my time can barely make out a face, let alone the persons license plate number. Usually a car pulls up 20-30ft from our front door/building, and dumps an animal before driving away. Law enforcement (animal dumping is a felony in Texas) is frustrated that our camera cannot make out their license plate, so we are starting to look into upgrading.

I need some advice as to what cameras you all would suggest, and of course being part of a nonprofit my budget is not near the prices I've seen quoted for LPR's. I can run the power or data lines needed for these cameras not an issue. I've looked into Reolink cameras but read more that they might not be up to the task? Does anyone have experience with them?

Budget: $1,000 (I know this is probably laughably inadequate for this task), but we may be able to fundraise more.

Needs: 1-4 cameras and underlying infrastructure for them, Reads license plates 20-40ft away, make out faces, requires no subscription service.

Additional ask: Sometimes these animals are dumped in the Texas heat and we need to know about them fast so we can get them out of the elements ASAP for their safety, any suggestions for mobile monitoring/alert software to go along with these cameras?

 

[samplenhold]

Your budget is not bad and you can probably do what you need on that amount.

For LPR, see the LPR forum and these threads.

New to LPR? Considerations Before You Begin

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ipcamtalk.com

LPR Case Study: Scoping, Planning, Proof of Concept, Installation, & Results

Introduction This thread is about my journey into LPR (License Plate Recognition) after having about 18 months of experience with IP cams and having quite a bit of my system finished. I am not an expert on LPR, or IP cameras either. But I have spent a lot of time working with my system and...

ipcamtalk.com

Why I like Continuous Recording (aka 24/7)

So a guy came to the door yesterday, and while my wife did not open the door, it kind of spooked her out. She said he seem suspicious saying he found a driver's license on the lawn and wanted to know if it belonged to her. So when I got back from the range, I checked out the cams. This is one...

ipcamtalk.com

Use of Overview and LPR Cams to Document Midnight Vehicle Distributing Offensive Flyers on Lawns

We were out of town and I was checking my cams remotely one morning and noticed one of the Deputies that regularly patrol my subdivision had been at my front door. She has come to me a few times requesting video as she knows I have fairly good coverage of the streets at my corner. I noticed that...

ipcamtalk.com

B5442E-Z4E - First Thoughts After Test

So this evening I finally got around to setting up a test rig with my new B5442E-Z4E that I bought from @EMPIRETECANDY and received in less than two days shipped from Hong Kong. Thank you Andy. I am impressed with this cam. A little background on the job this cam is to do. I live on a...

ipcamtalk.com

You can pick up a couple of good Dahua cams for $160-240 each. Then you need either an NVR OR a dedicated PC to run cam software like Blue Iris. You can get a good machine on ebay that is a refurb of a late model business machine for about $250. Blue Iris is currently on sale here for $63. ( Blue Iris Software - IP Cam Talk Store ) A Dahua NVR will cost about $200-300 I think, but I don't know as I am a Blue Iris user.

It would be great if you can post a few pics of the area or a drawing showing distances.

 

[samplenhold]

Usually a car pulls up 20-30ft from our front door/building,

Make sure that this distance is correct. To get good plate reads it is important to have enough optical zoom so the choice of camera is based on how far you need to optically zoom.

 

[adoptdontshop]

Thank you guys for replying! Here's a rough sketch of the parking lot where this is occurring with measurements. Often these cars do not have front license plates, so I'd like to try and put cameras at the blue circles.



Here are some photos showing how these cars appear on our current security camera

 

[n2qew]

I am a relative IP Cam noob so forgive me in advance! I handle general IT and building maintenance with a nonprofit Dog/Cat Rescue. Currently we are having a serious issue where animals are being dumped after-hours illegally, long story short, we don't take animals from the public, we take animals from the city shelters, primarily animals on critical lists at risk of being put down.

Our current camera which was put up long before my time can barely make out a face, let alone the persons license plate number. Usually a car pulls up 20-30ft from our front door/building, and dumps an animal before driving away. Law enforcement (animal dumping is a felony in Texas) is frustrated that our camera cannot make out their license plate, so we are starting to look into upgrading.

I need some advice as to what cameras you all would suggest, and of course being part of a nonprofit my budget is not near the prices I've seen quoted for LPR's. I can run the power or data lines needed for these cameras not an issue. I've looked into Reolink cameras but read more that they might not be up to the task? Does anyone have experience with them?

Budget: $1,000 (I know this is probably laughably inadequate for this task), but we may be able to fundraise more.

Needs: 1-4 cameras and underlying infrastructure for them, Reads license plates 20-40ft away, make out faces, requires no subscription service.

Additional ask: Sometimes these animals are dumped in the Texas heat and we need to know about them fast so we can get them out of the elements ASAP for their safety, any suggestions for mobile monitoring/alert software to go along with these cameras?

In addition to the suggestions below - and maybe as extra to the cameras / system suggested - maybe some game / trail cameras. Some of them can do a decent job of doing snapshots in sequence. If you have the ability to hide them in something, you can get close to the road at your entrance. IR lights at night, and totally battery powered.

 

[samplenhold]

Great pics and sketch. A few questions:
1. Is there any other way in/out of the property other than the street area marked "street"? When there are no cars in the parking spaces on the left of the sketch, can they drive out there?
2. Do people get out of the cars? Realize that chances are that if they stay in the cars, you will not get a face shot through the windshield as it reflects the cloud cover and sky.
3. Can you run ethernet cable (Cat5e) to the position I marked as 1 on your sketch? How do you plan to mount a cam there?
4. On the position marked 4, what do you hope to get by placing a cam there?
5. Realize that cams need to be positioned as such that they will not be obscured by parked cars or building overhangs.



Here are a few links to Andy's Amazon store that have cams that you should consider.

Amazon.com : EmpireTech 4MP 1/1.8" CMOS Ultra Low Light IP Camera,Starlight IR Motorized 2.7mm-12mm Lens,IP67,Built-in Mic,POE and ePOE,Vehicle and Human Detection,AcuPic,SMD 3.0,S3 Version IPC-T54IR-ZE White : Electronics
Amazon.com : EmpireTech Ultra Smart 4MP 1/1.8" CMOS Starlight+ Low Light IR Bullet IP Camera WDR,Built-in MIC,8mm–32mm Motorized Lens, Smart H.265+/ Smart H.264+,POE and ePOE Support, IP67,IPC-B54IR-Z4E S3 : Electronics
Amazon.com : EmpireTech Smart 2MP 1/2.8" CMOS Ultra Low Light Starlight IR Bullet IP Camera, Built-in MIC, Support POE and ePOE, Smart AI, 5mm–60mm Motorized Vari Lens, IP67,IK10, IPC-B52IR-Z12E S2 (White) : Electronics

The first cam (T54IR-ZE) could be used at positions 3 or 4 depending on what you want it to record. It could be used as a test cam to test out the other positions BEFORE you buy any other cams and BEFORE you run cable.

The second cam (B54IR-Z4E) would be a possible cam for LPR day and night. But you need to check on choke points for the cars coming and going. It has a larger optical zoom than your present cam or the T54IR-ZE to get closer to the plate. But the FOV will be narrower. Here are some shots from mine showing plates at different FOV and distances.



The third cam (B53IR-Z12E) has a lot more optical zoom than the other two and is used by many here for LPR when more zoom is needed. I use this one for my LPR in the links I posted above.

Realize that none of these cams are true LPR cams. They do not give you a plate as metadata. You have to view the footage to read the plate. There are third party software that will log plates but that is an additional expense.

I live in Spring. Roughly where is this clinic located? PM me if you want to discuss further.

 

[adoptdontshop]

1) There's no other access but the front, and we've only ever had animals dumped in our front lot. Definitely can drive where it says parking, that would be the left side of this image below

2) Every time we've seen them, they leave their cars to either drop their animals around the front doors, or tie them up to the doors.

3) Yes I can, our neighbor (the left side of the image and sketch is their fence) is actually a volunteer with us and is more than happy to have us mount a camera and the necessary cabling to their fence, or a wifi-camera. I'm planning to mount it most likely on their masonry fence corner, or somewhere on their fence.

4) With camera 4 I'm hoping to be able to see out to the other edge of the property, where we have a telephone pole by the street we've had animals dumped at prior, but also to catch anyone trying to dump a animal in the cubby between where our building juts out in the middle and the dumpster.

Love the suggestions! I agree we don't need a true LPR, just the ability to actually read the license plates when we go back and collect the footage for law enforcement. And the ability to have it alert us to movement we can program for after-hours so we can be alerted of activity (even if the amazon guy dropping off after hours sets it off)

I'll shoot you a PM! Would love to chat more, we are on the north side of 610. I can offer you all the dog and cat cuddles you could want!

If anyone else has more suggestions please let me know! Happy to PM or post more here.

 

[samplenhold]

I sent you a reply PM before I saw this post.