The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal announced Thursday that it has purchased four new cameras capable of recording the license‑plate numbers of vehicles as they travel past. The acquisition expands the municipal police force's existing automated license‑plate reading (ALPR) program and brings the number of such devices in the city to a higher level.
The four cameras were obtained from the technology provider Flock, a firm known for deploying similar ALPR equipment in other jurisdictions. While the purchase aligns with the police service's ongoing efforts to enhance traffic monitoring and law‑enforcement capabilities, the equipment mirrors the type that has drawn public attention in other locales due to privacy concerns.
According to the police department, the new cameras will be installed at strategic points across Montreal to capture vehicle registration data automatically. The recorded information can be used to support investigations, enforce traffic regulations, and locate stolen or suspect vehicles. The SPVM did not disclose the specific locations where the devices will be positioned, nor the timeline for their activation.
Montreal has been gradually integrating ALPR technology into its public‑safety toolkit over recent years. The addition of these four units represents the latest step in that process, reinforcing the city's capacity to monitor vehicular movement without requiring manual plate checks by officers. While the technology offers operational benefits, it continues to be associated with broader debates about data retention, privacy, and oversight, topics that have been raised in other cities that employ Flock's systems.
The police department emphasized that the equipment will operate within existing legal frameworks governing the collection and use of license‑plate data. As the devices become operational, they will join a network of surveillance tools aimed at improving public safety and traffic enforcement throughout Montreal.