ejabberd-contrib VS openalpr

Also a fan of XMPP, ejabberd.im is a formidable piece of software that pretty much just works once you have it all set up and configured.

Yes, work out-of-box, and in case, you like to deny OMEMO in your server, there is even a ejabberd-contrib module for that.

Why is ANPR unlawful for private citizens to perform on their own footage? (e.g. using https://www.openalpr.com)

You can actually build your own using OpenALPR: https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr/wiki/OpenALPR-Design

You can try also using it paired with something like openalpr or plate recognizer. Both have cheap options, plate recognizer offers a free plan with 2,500 lookups.

if anyone knows an up-to-date license plate reader version. https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr is outated, doesn't read different angles natively, traning tools are also outated etc but anyone knows an open source version that as well as say https://platerecognizer.com/ or even https://www.openalpr.com/ please let me know.

I like the idea of crowd sourced proof of infractions. You could easily extract EXIF data to grab date/time/location and also use openalpr to automate data input for human review.

openALPR (Automatic License Plate Recognition) + DCDMV integration + raspberry pi + a GPS cap on the RPi + decent webcam + OpenMaps (you don't even need this unless you want to plot it); Maybe add a condition to send plate location over $XXXX to some traffic enforcement distros. Hardware for a setup will probably run $250 tops if you're going fancy

Oh, It was my school project something like that, and I use some YOLO's and OpenALPR, openalpr is amazing give it a try: OpenALPR https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr