Canadian YouTuber Tracks Police Cars With Custom License Plate Camera

Concerns over how surveillance technology can expose people's movements have taken a new turn in Brampton, Ontario, where software engineer and YouTuber Anthony Sistilli built an automatic license plate recognition camera designed to track police vehicles exclusively. Two Peel Regional Police officers visited his home on September 20, asking about his intentions after videos demonstrating the device appeared online. Sistilli described the encounter in a YouTube video posted on October 7, explaining that the officers raised concerns about the same type of monitoring that has drawn criticism from ordinary citizens.

His project uses technology similar to systems deployed by law enforcement to record vehicle movements and identify license plates. During the visit, one officer explained the potential risks of collecting information about police officers' routines, according to Sistilli's account. The engineer said the discussion highlighted the privacy questions surrounding surveillance systems that can reveal where people travel and when they are present at particular locations.

According to Sistilli, one officer said, "One of them [the officers] took the time to specifically mention how scary it would be for them, because people would be able to find out where they lived, when they got on their shift and what they were doing throughout the day, and that that type of powerful information could put them personally at risk for any bad apples that might want to track them down."

The officers reportedly raised concerns that restricting access to such information could also create challenges for active investigations. Sistilli's account did not establish that the police visit resulted in charges or formal enforcement action. The project emerged amid growing debate over automated license plate recognition networks, particularly those operated by Flock Safety in the United States. According to the company's figures cited by Tom's Hardware on October 11, its network had expanded to more than 120,000 cameras across 49 states, collecting billions of vehicle scans each month.

Critics have questioned how these networks collect, retain, and share information. Because participating police departments can search data across state lines, privacy advocates have raised concerns about the breadth of surveillance and the limited oversight governing access to vehicle records. Investigative reports have also documented alleged misuse of surveillance databases, including cases involving the tracking of former partners and their acquaintances. Security researchers have separately identified 335,701 cameras associated with Flock in a mapping effort, according to Tom's Hardware, illustrating the scale of the surveillance infrastructure under scrutiny.

Data security has become another point of contention. Tom's Hardware reported that hackers extracted more than 27,000 video clips and 1.6 million images captured over 21 days from a stolen Flock camera, raising questions about the practical protection of collected footage. Flock and supporters of its technology maintain that the network helps reduce crime, while critics dispute how its effectiveness is measured.

Several municipalities, including Los Angeles and Fullerton, have suspended or canceled agreements with the company amid public concerns about privacy and surveillance. Gizmodo reported on October 9 that Peel Regional Police had not immediately responded to its request for comment about the officers' visit. The available accounts did not include an official explanation from the department.

Sistilli's experience also comes as other developers experiment with ways to prevent automated systems from identifying vehicles. A separate YouTube creator operating the Studio Hotrods channel demonstrated a GPS-triggered device intended to obscure license plates near designated surveillance cameras, using an electronically controlled film covering the plate.

The Studio Hotrods prototype combines Arduino hardware, a GPS module, a relay, a voltage converter, and a memory card containing camera locations. Its creator said the proof of concept worked during testing but that the activation timing still required refinement. The creator also acknowledged uncertainty about the legality of the device, explaining that the intention was to interfere with automated camera recognition rather than prevent people or police officers from seeing the license plate. The demonstration adds another dimension to the dispute over how surveillance technology should be regulated and how far individuals can go to protect their privacy.