Pull everyone out of the pools or off the courts, line them up against the wall, and demand IDs. That will certainly find the outsiders and teenagers freeloading off the residents but at what cost? The lighter touch approach likely is an attempt to cater to the residents who want to enjoy the amenities without feeling overly policed.

The current approach clearly isn’t working for some pools or some people.

Perhaps a period of increased enforcement? Would that make sense now or in the fall when population increases again?

Technology-based solutions sound good but will be expensive.

Did you not see in the very Happy paper that we have taken over the villages?

Theme parks have used bands for special events for years. Each person is required to wear band at all times. Band is waterproof, can’t be removed unless cut. Once cut no longer valid, and some refuse to reissue unless a medical emergency. The longest I have had a special band was 10 days. Not a big deal. Instead of paper guest pass, a band could be printed for the same cost.

So which is it? Villagers want to enjoy life without being over policed, or they clamor for more police, more enforcement especially on the roads. Pick one

Yes indeed, precisely the point. As well as the fact that TV is an ongoing enterprise. All of those factor in.


My vote is for the standard, ongoing spot checks and not being overly-policed. I think that's what most would ultimately prefer whether they realize it or not. It's much less intrusive to daily living.

I don’t disagree. In a thread some time ago I suggested giving them what they are clamoring for until they realize it really isn’t what they want.

Is this a solution looking for a problem?
I believe there are probably some amenities being used by non villagers. I personally don’t experience it, or if I did at a pool or a court, I may not have even known about it.
Comunity watch should have a testable number, if there are a bunch of rowdy kids at your pool, text and CW comes by.

For the people that are so triggered by a fraction of 1% of people being found using our facilities even though they're likely just unregistered guests (kids, grandkids, etc), I think maybe they should take up a hobby or something instead of looking for witchhunts to join.

I drove up Paradise yesterday and saw 4 kids playing basketball, with no adult present at all. The oldest of the four might've been 16, the youngest, possibly 10.

That's a lawsuit waiting to happen. Kid gets blocked by the bigger kid or smacked in the face by the ball by mistake, falls, breaks their elbow on the court, and parents sue for medical damages.

Even if the suit gets thrown out, it would mean our community's lawyers getting involved, the rec center having to recover from the reputational damage when it hits the newspapers that we LET it happen (and yes - we absolutely LET it happen by not enforcing our ID rules).

Insurance premium for the community would go up if the parents filed a claim against it.

We shouldn't be borrowing trouble. We should be pro-active in preventing it, whenever practical and possible. There needs to be more recreational employees whose jobs it is to roam between rec centers and check IDs at spots where there isn't any employee already stationed (like pools and shuffleboard courts and archery ranges and dog parks and basketball courts).

So, what number of trespassing freeloaders are you willing to tolerate before it's a problem? The questionable statistic right now is 168 caught in 5 months or around 400/year. I contend that if 400/year are CAUGHT, there are probably 4-5x as many, if not more. Is 2,000/year acceptable? What is the number that we should tolerate? How much should we spend to prevent it? All good questions, but "taking up another hobby" will not get them answered, any more than an ostrich avoids danger by burying its head in the sand.

Agree totally. The other aspect is knowing the identity of those who use the amenities. When you enter a rec center, your ID is scanned. When you drive a car through the gates, your license plate is photographed. But when someone hops the fence or rides a bicycle in, we have no idea who they are. If an incident takes place, they will be hard to identity. It was Ben Franklin who wrote "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"

The other evening I was using the outside exercise equipment at Mulberry after swimming laps in the sports pool. A bunch of locals (I would put around 30 years old) walked across the street (which is outside the bubble) with a big cooler full of beer and wine and proceeded to take over the exercise equipment like it was their private party spot. They cranked up some red neck type country western on a Bluetooth speaker and were having a grand old time. I was almost done with my workout and didn’t want a confrontation with several people less than half my age, so I let it go and headed home. I thought about calling community standards, but it was getting dark out and I didn’t want to put someone else in a precarious position. The point is, non Villagers are using our amenities and are getting good at knowing what they can get away with.

They get away with it because people see them doing it and don't make that phone call. You'd be calling the Community Watch - and you'd be telling them that there's a group of outsiders boozing it up at the sports equipment park, and maybe they should involve the county/city police. Let them decide if they're being put in a precarious position or not. That's what you pay them for - to make those decisions and to get support from the police if/when needed.

There was also the matter of some drug addict homeless guy using the rest room for a half hour at the golf course, preventing anyone else from using it (single stall), and then he started wandering around ON the golf course - while the course was open for play and people were trying to play.

Rec employees can only do so much - but what they CAN do, they SHOULD do. Such as - checking IDs and making sure kids at the outdoor facilities have an adult with a guest or resident pass accompanying them.

Exactly, we had then on during a cruise for a month. One all inclusive resort used a very nice cloth band.

RFID Fabric wristband - MTOB RFID

Include Medical ID on the band.

Medical Alert Bracelets | Medical ID Bracelet

A chip could be embeded in the band to replace the ID card, when scanned, you photo shows up as with the card ID. (Disney Magic bands)

Some would be happy to pay for the convenience rather than carry an ID card.

Issues of course. But the perfect is the enemy of the good enough.

A few things:
-- TV isn't a cruise ship or all-inclusive resort where that bracelet might need to be scanned multiple times per day for access to various things or for purchases. Therefore, it provides great convenience in those places. And people only have to wear it for the time they are there.

-- If it was used at TV, presumably, active people would have to wear it every day...forever? If more frequent scanning occurred, they'd have to. I think I can speak for many that they will not want to be required to wear a bracelet on the regular. It's a bit like being an inmate, really, and is overkill, imo.

-- Also, again, if they were to be scanning people regularly, there is a creepy, big brother factor to it. Some people may not care that TV would have all that activity and whereabouts data about them but, plenty of people would protest that kind of tracking and I figure TV HQ knows that.

Something that sort-of ties in to that....I recently declined to move forward becoming a patient at a well-known health system in this area because I wanted to reject (strike out) a particular aspect of their patient agreement that was inappropriate and very intrusive. I would hope other people are protesting that too but, I wonder. Privacy actually still matters.

We also really need to take a look at non residents using the pool bathrooms.

During the busy months there are many witnesses. But when it gets slow there might be only one or two in the pool when a random person shows up to use the bathroom.

70 year old woman alone at the pool and random landscapers show up. Most likely it's gonna be okay. But.... eventually something is gonna happen

I think the people who would really be ****ed off are the ones who wouldn’t qualify to wear the bracelet because they’re trying to freeload. And of course they would call it “Big Brother” or “creepy” etc anything to discourage it from happening.

And many here will say "where are they to go". Well, when they are out and about in other areas of FLA during their work day ... where do they "go" then?

We're not Floridas toilet.

Since many are concerned with their toilet needs maybe they should use YOUR house.

The tread is mostly about how to identify a Registered Guest, or trespasser.

As far as tracking you Resident ID is a tracker with a bar code required at all events within TV

Instead of having a guest ID, a waterproof band could be printed for the same amount of money, requiring all guests to wear them while on property, for duration of stay.
So, even if they jumped in the pool, they would easily be identified. At this time no Guest ID is scanned, So Guest ID band would be a Cheap alternative to find any trespassers especially in the pool.

As far as Resident IDs, band would be a pain, and could Clash with Pickleball or golf outfit,.

However, an app to have your resident ID on your phone or device with not only be inexpensive but convenient.

Kets face it how many people do you know that doesn’t carry a phone.

Including the freeloading trespassers who could hack the phone ID or clone it. Once one copy is out there, thousands of copies will follow

Many teens could clone a resident ID just as easily. What would be the difference a physical card or app clone? Plus if a multi scans in TV on the same day would pose red flag if 20 clones from one card, or app
Our former tenant family moved him to SC for two months then he passed. Family couldn’t find his gate pass or Resident ID, when they came to collect his belongings.

At the district office, the ID and gate passes were still being used for those months and 2 weeks after he passed. His girlfriend was using his Id and gate passes.
Her excuse he must have left them in my car, sure. Let her know the Id and gate pass showed the activity for past two months, have been deactivated, and I needed possession immediately. Returned within 30 minutes.

Much harder to mass produce fake ID cards than to distribute thousands of cloned phone app copies

The other day I went to get the mail and go to the pool. In front of the Postal was crouch rocket motorcycles. I went and got in the pool there were about 8 people there. About 10 minutes later I see a 20 year old come out of the bathroom with his helmet. You could tell he was a construction worker by the clothes in his hand. So he must have used the pool bathroom to cleanup and change. I wish I was there when he arrived.

Why? Plan on challenging him? Then you both get arrested.

I doubt a waterproof band could be printed at the cost of 1/2 a sheet of paper (Guest IDs are printed two to a page). Besides that, my guests typically come for anywhere from a week to a month; will they be required to wear their waterproof band all 30 days?

Yes. That is standard procedure at previous developments I have lived in and pretty much the norm at resorts.

It is standard procedure to require wearing a non-removable band for the duration of a 30-day stay? No thank you.

You're stretching things. Used while using amenities.

Not stretching things at all, simply thinking them through.

If the band is removable then it is no different than the card we have today. Perhaps worse since if the band does not have some identifying information then it could be given to someone else. If the band is not removable then 30-day guests would need to wear it the entire time.

Scale matters. On the one hand you have a "previous development" or a resort with a couple hundred guests and one or two pools. Here you have 34 square miles, 100+ pools, dozens of rec centers, hundreds of outdoor courts (pickleball, shuffleboard, bocce, etc), and over 1,000 new guest passes distributed each day.

John Rohan, is that you? Yeah, this is like the 80's. What worked then should work now.

One issue I have not seen discussed is with all the expenses going up for owners of homes in The Villages such water sewer trash amenities' insurance etc. regardless whether you rent or do not rent out your home the cost of a non resident or Lifestyles pass $50. has stayed the same in the 9yrs that I have owned in The Villages. The renter/non resident particular in the high season creates a high usage on the facilitates that the amenities fees pay for. I think its time The Villages Corp. need to get off their high horse in trying to sell more homes and instead focus more on the current owners in trying to keep the cost of living in The Villages down

The Villages (aka The Developer) doesn’t control the prices of water, sewage, trash, insurance, amenities (after you buy your home), etc. Some of the prices are regulated, to some degree. The trash was negotiated by the CDDs. The amenities’ fee goes up by the CPI. I’m not sure how you think The Villages can help.

Incorrect, the comment was unnecessarily nasty and if you were implying - me - I am a homeowner in good standing at TV. Who also happens to value privacy and not being tracked.

Btw, the reason I mentioned the healthcare system issue in my prior comment was because what they wanted me to agree to was to allow my *personal health records* to be provided to "research". Astonishing. And when I asked several questions about it, I got evasive non-committal answers. I have little doubt they would be PAID for that information. I could write an essay on how messed-up all of that is.

Velvet - the world of today is not like the one we've understood most of our lives. It is not. The undue intrusions are constant. Did you know that Smart televisions have cameras in them? Some even have microphones. And those crazy Alexa and Siri devices are ON and recording the entire time? Yes, and yes. All that personal info is being captured and sold.

When in doubt and a lack of knowledge it’s always easy to blame “the developer.” Or in this case “The Villages Corp”.

How about everyone gets their ID barcode tattooed on their inner wrist?

Yes, that is [/sarcasm], but no more ludicrous than some of the other ideas in this thread.

Agree 100% enforcement is necessary, and agree trespassers should be prosecuted with the prosecution widely publicized. Good luck finding a way to do that without spending lots of $$$$.

If a person does NOT have a Villager ID they should NOT come to a club meeting. They should start their own club and meet somewhere outside of the Villages.

I agree with this post. Especially the part about using flowers or plants that are year around plants and do NOT need to be uprooted and replaced often. That is just a "stupid" waste of time and human resources expense.

They could develop an app with you ID that is geotagged. Community watch can drive into parking lot, see how many resident ID are at pool, compared to # using the pool

Country clubs use the technology already.

Only if they wanted to use the amenities. I think a nice Villages green with the logo would be perfect.