The provincial government provided extensive grant money to police services across Ontario to install Automated Licence Plate Recognition (ALPR) technology, allowing GSPS to outfit 31 vehicles. This technology uses cameras and software that automatically scans licence plates. It alerts officers to stolen plates, or plates registered to suspended drivers. The system can also notify officers of missing and wanted persons, as well as vehicles associated with AMBER alerts. This specific technology also provides the ability to use this ‘dash cam’ type camera as a comprehensive In-Car Camera system.

The Greater Sudbury Police Service uses Automated Licence Plate Recognition (ALPR) cameras to automatically scan and detect licence plates in the surrounding area of a police cruiser. This makes it more difficult for suspended drivers, drivers of stolen cars, and other vehicles with plates in poor standing to drive undetected. Under optimal conditions, the ALPR system is capable of scanning thousands of licence plates per hour.

For more information on the ALPR policy and usage, please visit the transparency portal at: Axon Transparency Portal (evidence.com)

What does ALPR look like?

A camera is mounted on the windshield of a police cruiser. The camera points forward and scans cars in front of the police vehicle.

How does it work?

The licence plate scanner continuously scans licence plates as an officer drives around the city. The officer is notified when there is a “hit” and will take the appropriate enforcement action. For example, if the hit indicated a licence plate was owned by a suspended driver, the officer would stop the vehicle to determine if the driver of the vehicle was that person.
What is a Hotlist?

The ALPR system has access to an Ontario Ministry of Transportation and Canadian Police Information Centre “hot list”, which is a data base that contains millions of licence plates in poor standing. If the ALPR camera scans a licence plate that is registered to the hot list, it produces a hit, alerting the officers on a monitor in the cruiser that the plate is in poor standing. 

 

Licence plates that are in poor standing can fall into one or more of the following categories:

  • Stolen vehicles or licence plates
  • Missing or expired licence plates
  • Licence plates registered to unlicenced, uninsured, prohibited or suspended drivers
  • Licence plates associated to persons with outstanding Canada-wide warrants or who are reported missing

 

For a complete list of reasons, please read the IPC's report.

The information stored in the hotlist is information that is already available to our officers if they were to run your licence plate on the computer in their car themselves; it does not give them access to any new information. 

What happens if you scan my licence plate? Is my information stored in your system?

If your licence plate is a non-hit, the officer will not even be notified that your plate was scanned. All information related to a non-hit is deleted.

 

If your license plate is a hit, the officer will receive a notification of the hit and will receive basic information about the vehicle and the registered owner such as the make, model and colour of the vehicle, and the name, gender and date of birth of the owner.

 

The officer must then stop the vehicle and verify all information within the hit before taking any enforcement action. Hit information is retained in accordance with the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA).

Can the scanner take pictures or video of anything else?

The scanner is part of the police cruiser’s in-car video system.  

Privacy

The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC) has released guidelines on the use of ALPRS by police services. The report ensures that the Police Service's use of this technology respects privacy rights recognized under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and that personal information is handled in a lawful manner.

Our collection, retention, use and disclosure of any personal information obtained from the ALPR program is done so in compliance with the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA).

 

Questions

If you have any questions or concerns related to this technology, please call 705-675-9171.