RCMP using license plate readers to track traffic violations
The short version: CityNews reports B.C. RCMP detachments are rolling out ALPR for traffic enforcement — a preview of the mission creep American drivers already know too well.
Our Take
Credit to CityNews and reporter Kate Walker for putting a spotlight on this rollout, but the framing — ALPR as a friendly "second set of eyes" catching speeders — is exactly how this technology always gets its foot in the door. Start with traffic violations, an easy sell nobody wants to defend publicly, then watch the mission quietly expand to insurance status checks, warrant sweeps, and eventually feeding plate-and-location data into databases that outlast the original justification entirely.
We've watched this movie before in the U.S. Flock Safety and similar vendors pitched their cameras as tools for solving specific crimes, and now there are thousands of them logging every plate that passes, often shared across agencies and jurisdictions with little public oversight. Once a police force gets used to having a searchable record of everyone's movements, it rarely gives that power back, and "traffic enforcement" becomes the least of what the network is used for.
If you're in the U.S. and want to see how far this has already spread near you, check our camera map, and if you want to push back on unchecked ALPR deployment in your own community, our take-action page has concrete steps.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of CityNews, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.