Most LPR systems don’t work well for parking garages. Here's why.

License Plate Recognition (LPR) is more and more often sold as a “plug‑and‑play” way to automate parking operations and eliminate gates, tickets, and kiosks. The promise is clear: fewer barriers for customers and better visibility, insights, and enforcement for owners.

It’s actually more nuanced, and LPR isn’t automatically reliable. 

In reality, camera performance varies widely. This is especially true in parking garages, where lighting, reflections, traffic flow, and customer behavior are unpredictable. Also, many cameras are primarily built for general security, public safety needs, or toll road monitoring. For LPR to create real value in a parking facility, it needs to do more than snap pictures of license plates.

LPR cameras should:

• Capture every vehicle reliably
• Read the plate accurately, even in varied conditions
• Do it at the right moment (speed, angle, time of day)
• Filter out non‑events (pedestrians, bikes, shadows)
• Integrate with enforcement and payments seamlessly

When any of these functions fail, operators can lose revenue and customers lose trust. 

This article walks property owners through the technical capabilities and system requirements that really matter for LPR in a parking facility. We’ll take a detailed look at how the leading providers stack up, including Flock Safety, Rekor, Verkada, Survision, and AirGarage.

Comparing LPR camera options for parking facilities

Below we compare some of the most popular LPR cameras from manufacturers. Our information comes from publicly available sources like product data sheets, municipality contracts, and independently published testing information.

We focused the comparison on what matters most for your day-to-day parking operations: parking suitability, total cost, deployment speed, how the system processes plates, and whether you can actually plug it into your existing workflow.

Key Takeaways

• Many leading camera brands use similar overseas technology with parking-specific packaging and add-on features rather than a domestically-built camera designed specifically for LPR.
• This “repurposed” hardware marketed for parking LPR is actually built for security functions, and lacks some of the key technical specs needed in parking facilities.
• Most LPR packages are not designed to easily integrate with a cohesive parking management system.
• Accuracy claims for LPR are often made based on tests in controlled environments like a laboratory, which inflates real performance numbers and capabilities.
• Leased camera and software packages aren’t a favorable option for most parking facilities since lease agreements quickly get pricey at up to $2K-$3K+ per camera and hundreds of dollars monthly for subscription fees.

Let’s dive deeper into the core functions an LPR system should offer for parking management, and why the specs we highlighted in the comparison above matter.

System Requirements for Parking‑Focused LPR

Accurate capture means more revenue.

If the camera doesn’t see the car, you can’t bill it.

Your system needs to detect and capture every vehicle that enters or exits. This capability depends on the quality of the optics, illumination for varied lighting conditions, and the ability to withstand real‑world conditions.

• Distance specs in the datasheets (e.g., “capture plates at 75–100 ft”) are aimed at highways and security patrols. In a garage, that doesn’t help revenue. What you need are optics optimized for short ranges, tight lanes, and stop‑and‑go speed, not cross‑lot surveillance. 
• Infrared (IR) and Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) allow the camera to work in low light, glare, or shadows
• Weather resistance, vandal‑proof housings, and flexible mounting matter for outdoor lots. For garages, ease of installation (e.g., PoE vs. standard AC) determines cost and downtime

Capturing the image of a plate is only the first step in collecting your parking revenue. The system then needs to correctly read what’s in the image.

Correct plate readings build trust and avoid customer frustration.

LPR systems use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to convert images into usable plate information. OCR is the software that takes the photo of a license plate and “reads” the letters and numbers on it, converting them into text. 

Even if the system takes a perfect photo, an OCR mistake can still cause problems. A misread plate either:

• Creates a revenue leak when the vehicle goes unbilled
• Creates a negative customer experience when the wrong car is charged

Once plates can be read reliably, the challenge becomes ensuring the system captures them in the dynamic conditions of real parking traffic.

Different speeds and conditions can confuse cameras.

Your parking garage isn’t a test lab or controlled environment. Vehicles may roll through quickly or several may enter closely, one after another. The system has to capture plates at the right moment.

• Fast shutter speeds and high frame rates prevent motion blur. Once motion is detected, a higher FPS produces more chances to capture a clean plate image.
• Reasonable speed tolerance ensures reliable capture whether cars are crawling in traffic or moving quickly through a gate.
• Multi-lane support reduces infrastructure costs in larger facilities.

If the system can’t keep up with live traffic conditions, operators lose visibility and control. 

Accuracy also depends on filtering out the “noise” and ensuring the system captures only vehicles, not everything else in the frame.

Cameras need to distinguish cars from everything else.

A reliable LPR system for parking garages must distinguish between vehicles and any other object that’s not a customer. Pedestrians, bicycles, and shadows should not trigger a capture. These false captures just clutter your parking data.

Systems like Rekor and Flock claim to expand this capability with vehicle fingerprinting (e.g., make, model, and color). While this feature is useful for law enforcement or security, it’s less helpful for parking payments. 

Finding the right option for your facility

For parking asset owners, it is important to recognize that not all LPR systems are created equal.

• Accuracy matters most. Every missed plate is missed revenue. A 70–80% capture rate means 20–30% of vehicles go unbilled.
• Reliability protects trust. Missed sessions, system downtime, or duplicate charges frustrate customers and strain enforcement.
• Marketing claims are often based on ideal conditions. Vendors may advertise “99% capture,” but real‑world parking environments rarely match controlled lab scenarios.

Tripwire was designed specifically for parking operations and built with high‑frame‑rate hardware, custom trigger sensors, and self‑correcting image logic. This enables real‑world accuracy at the levels owners expect.

We also continue to refine our technology through real‑world testing and incorporating feedback from live deployments. To learn more about how we approach LPR installation, check out the AirGarage LPR Handbook for an in‑depth breakdown.

FAQs

What is License Plate Recognition (LPR)?
It’s a camera plus software system that automatically reads license plates and logs them as text.

What is Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR)?
The same technology as LPR, commonly called ANPR outside the US.

What is Optical Character Recognition (OCR)?
The software that “reads” letters and numbers from an image. In LPR, OCR is what turns a photo of a license plate into text that can be stored, searched, and linked to payments or enforcement.

What is vehicle fingerprinting?
Some advanced LPR systems capture not just the plate but attributes such as the vehicle’s make, model, and color. This helps with enforcement and dispute resolution.

How accurate are LPR cameras in practice?
Claims hit 95–99% in marketing. Real garages usually see 70–90%. Purpose‑built systems like Tripwire are tested at about 99% in the field.

Do all LPR cameras work at night?
Only systems with built‑in infrared (IR) illumination or other low‑light technology can reliably capture plates at night.

Glossary

• OCR (Optical Character Recognition): Software that translates images of letters/numbers into text.
• FPS (Frames Per Second): How many frames/images the camera captures per second.
• IR (Infrared): A type of light invisible to humans but used by cameras to see in the dark.
• WDR (Wide Dynamic Range): Camera feature to handle bright and dark in the same frame (like headlights against a dark garage).‍
• PoE (Power over Ethernet): One cable supplies both power and data to a device.