GoKawiilCanadian engineer builds ALPR camera to track police vehicles, draws police visit
Software engineer and YouTuber Anthony Sistilli built his own automatic license plate recognition camera designed specifically to track police vehicles, modeling it on networks like Flock Safety's. After he posted videos detailing the build and demonstrating it in use, two Peel Regional Police officers visited his home in Brampton, Ontario, to question him about his intentions.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The episode highlights growing public unease over ALPR networks like Flock Safety, which has scaled to over 120,000 cameras across the U.S. and faced criticism for operating without public votes or federal oversight. Sistilli's project turns the surveillance tool back on law enforcement, suggesting he aims to illustrate the privacy concerns citizens face when subjected to similar tracking, though his stated motive is to provoke reflection rather than to break any law.
- A Canadian YouTuber built a DIY ALPR camera that tracks only police vehicles, inspired by networks like Flock Safety.
- Police visited his home two weeks after he posted videos of the device in use, questioning his intentions.
- Flock Safety's network has drawn criticism for mass surveillance capability spanning 49 U.S. states with over 120,000 cameras.
Raspberry Pi 4 Model B — DIY ALPR and camera-tracking projects like Sistilli's are often built around a compact single-board computer such as the Raspberry Pi, which has enough processing power to run open-source license plate recognition software paired with a camera module. It's a great entry point for hobbyists and privacy researchers wanting to experiment with computer vision and surveillance tech themselves. Plus it's versatile enough to repurpose for countless other maker projects afterward.}
See Raspberry Pi 4 Model B on Amazon → Affiliate link — we may earn a commission on purchases, at no extra cost to you. Product picked by AI based on this article; it is not a tested recommendation.Source: tomshardware.com — Etiido Uko, 2026-10-11
Published there as: “Canadian YouTuber builds 'Flock-like' camera to exclusively track police vehicles”
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