Montreal Police Remove AI Surveillance Camera After Privacy Report
Montreal police installed a Cloudrunner Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) camera on a street in the Rivière-des-Prairies neighbourhood and removed it hours after a media report raised privacy concerns. The police said the camera was used temporarily to support targeted investigative work.
What happened
The Montreal Police Service (SPVM) installed a Cloudrunner Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) camera on a streetlight on Henri-Bourassa Boulevard in the Rivière-des-Prairies neighbourhood.
The camera was removed hours after Radio-Canada published a report about its installation on Wednesday, August 13, 2026.
The SPVM said the camera was used 'to support targeted investigative work on a temporary basis' and was removed 'in order to safeguard our ongoing investigative strategies.'
Reported impact
The camera's removal came following public reporting that raised privacy concerns about the automated surveillance device.
The SPVM said the information collected was limited to 'those responsible for the investigation,' but did not disclose whether other Cloudrunner cameras had been installed elsewhere in the city.
Index analysis
ALPRs scan vehicles and collect information such as make, colour, vehicle type, speed, direction, and licence plates even when plates are dirty or obscured.
The camera in Rivière-des-Prairies appeared to be the first time the SPVM had deployed a fixed ALPR camera on a street in Montreal, though the force has already equipped more than a dozen patrol vehicles with ALPR cameras.
Governance controls
The SPVM said the camera was used under a lease agreement with Genetec and declined to disclose the location of investigative equipment, citing the need to protect investigative techniques from those with 'malicious intent.'
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.