Ontario

2 Deployments on record

2 Technology categories

Technology presence

ALPR · none on record Fixed cameras & RTCC · none on record Face recognition · 1 Drones / UAS · none on record Gunshot detection · none on record Body-worn & dashcam · 1 Doorbell & camera registry · none on record Cell-site simulators · none on record Predictive policing · none on record Social-media monitoring · none on record

What these categories mean

ALPR: Automated licence plate readers (ALPR): camera systems that automatically capture, read, and log vehicle licence plates with location and time, producing a searchable record of vehicle movements.
Fixed cameras & RTCC: Agency-operated fixed video cameras and the real-time crime centers (RTCC) that aggregate live and recorded feeds for monitoring.
Face recognition: Software that matches faces in images or video against a reference database to identify or verify individuals.
Drones / UAS: Uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), commonly called drones, operated by an agency for overhead observation, imaging, or sensing.
Gunshot detection: Networks of acoustic sensors that detect and locate suspected gunfire and alert an agency.
Body-worn & dashcam: Officer body-worn and in-vehicle dashboard cameras that record encounters; public access to the footage is frequently restricted.
Doorbell & camera registry: Programs that give an agency access to privately owned camera footage: doorbell-camera partnerships, citizen camera registries, and private-camera integration platforms.
Cell-site simulators: Devices that mimic cell towers to locate or identify nearby mobile phones. They are often called Stingrays, or IMSI catchers after the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) number that identifies each phone on a network. Adjacent: communications surveillance outside the visual/sensor core.
Predictive policing: Software that forecasts where crime may occur or who may be involved, to direct policing. Adjacent: analytics rather than a sensing deployment.
Social-media monitoring: Tools that collect and analyze public social-media activity for an agency. Adjacent: open-source/communications monitoring outside the visual/sensor core.

The record

Body-worn & dashcam

Body-worn camera program approved November 2020, with an annual compliance audit reported to the Toronto Police Services Board.

Sources: Toronto Police Services Board body-worn cameras policy

Face recognition Vendor: NEC

Toronto Police Service uses an NEC facial recognition product (exact product name unconfirmed in the public record), first disclosed in 2020.

Sources: Citizen Lab, To Surveil and Predict Biometric Update, Toronto police NEC facial recognition (2020)

Source: the public record. Canadian police-force and government publications, and federal Office of the Privacy Commissioner findings; per-entry citations on each record · retrieved July 2026