What are ALPRs?

An automatic licence plate reader (ALPR, sometimes LPR) is an AI-driven camera that captures an image of every vehicle that drives by and stores what it sees — the plate number, the place, and the precise time. Many models also note a car's make, model, and colour, and even identifying marks such as dents, roof racks, or bumper stickers, converting each one into searchable data.

These cameras log millions of vehicles regardless of whether anyone is under suspicion. Sold as indispensable tools against crime, they instead record the everyday movements of law-abiding people, with little judicial oversight over how the data is kept or searched.

For more on how ALPRs threaten privacy, see resources from Canadian groups like the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and OpenMedia, along with the EFF and ACLU.

What do they look like?

Why Should You Be Concerned

ALPRs erode privacy and chip away at civil liberties. Here's how:

Many of the documented cases below come from the United States, where ALPR surveillance is most entrenched — but the same vendors and systems (Flock, Genetec, Motorola) are now expanding across Canada.

Frequently Asked Questions