Sault cops' new license plate scanner

Our Take

SooToday's segment on the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service's new plate reader reads like most local ALPR rollout stories: a friendly demo, an officer explaining how much faster it is than eyeballing plates, and a tidy 'keeping roadways safer' bow on top. What's missing, as usual, is any mention of how long scans are stored, who can access that data, whether it's shared with other agencies or databases, and what happens to the location history of every driver who happens to pass one of these cameras — guilty of nothing.

This is the pattern we track across North America: a department buys a scanner to catch stolen cars or wanted plates, and in the process builds a permanent, searchable record of ordinary people's movements. Even when the tech is marketed as a narrow tool, the infrastructure it creates is anything but narrow. One camera becomes a node in a much larger tracking network, often with little public debate about retention limits, audit trails, or misuse.

If you want to see how far this network already reaches — including cameras near you — check out our camera map. And if your city is considering an ALPR purchase or already has one running with no public oversight, our take-action page has concrete steps for pushing back before 'safer roads' becomes shorthand for 'we're watching everyone.'