{
  "id": 13947831,
  "title": "An engineer built a Flock-like camera to detect police cars, says officers visited him afterward",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/12/an-engineer-built-a-flock-like-camera-to-detect-police-cars-says",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-12T12:03:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "TechSpot",
    "slug": "techspot",
    "url": "https://www.techspot.com/news/114167-engineer-built-flock-like-camera-detect-police-cars.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A Canadian software engineer named Anthony Sistilli created a camera designed to spot police vehicles. He presented his prototype to officers from Peel Regional Police, who visited his home after seeing his videos. The officers expressed concern over the potential to expose their routines, emphasizing the same issue that makes searchable vehicle records useful to police and intrusive to those being watched. Sistilli used automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) technology in his camera, which is commonly employed by police to record passing vehicles and enable later searches. However, his initial prototype struggled with processing 4K footage and identifying vehicles and their license plates. He improved the design by reducing resolution and separating tasks - detecting a police car first, then attempting to read its plate. Despite these improvements, his system produced only two images of police vehicles with difficult-to-read plates after an hour of testing. The demonstration was more of a proof-of-concept than a reliable tracking system. The officers acknowledged the potential risks associated with such surveillance, noting that the same concerns civilians have about license-plate monitoring. They mentioned that stronger disclosure requirements could reveal sensitive information about ongoing investigations. While commercial systems like Flock Safety's integrate cameras with server-side processing and a shared database for more extensive observations, Sistilli's prototype highlights the significant challenges in identifying vehicles from roadside footage.",
  "summary": "Anthony Sistilli described Peel Regional Police's visit last month in a YouTube video that he recently posted. His project uses automatic license plate recognition, or ALPR – the technology police use to record passing vehicles and search for them later. But Sistilli designed his camera to pick out police vehicles... Read Entire Article",
  "key_points": [
    "Canadian engineer Anthony Sistilli built a camera to detect police cars.",
    "Officers from Peel Regional Police visited him after seeing his videos.",
    "Concerned about exposing routines, officers emphasized surveillance risks."
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}