Row over ‘virtual gated community’ AI surveillance plan in Toronto neighbourhood | AI (artificial intelligence)
Publish Date: 2026-04-07 10:07:00
Source Domain: www.theguardian.com
A row has broken out in one of Canada’s wealthiest neighbourhoods over plans to use an AI-powered surveillance system to create the country’s first “virtual gated community” to combat surging property crime.
Crime rates in Toronto as a whole are dropping, but residents of Rosedale have been left on edge by a sustained rise in home invasions, with robbers targeting the tree-lined neighbourhood at a rate more than double the city average. Break-ins and theft remain the third highest per capita in Toronto.
Growing unease is reflected in the community’s WhatsApp group, where as many as 60 out of about 350 members are already contributing to fund private security.
“My friends experienced a horrific home invasion here in the community – their children were held at knifepoint, and they will be traumatised for the rest of their life. Other friends aren’t sleeping well at night because they’re anxious about the crime that’s going to occur,” said Craig Campbell, the Rosedale resident who proposed the plan. “Almost everyone knows someone who has been affected. Something has to be done.”
In late March, residents attended a virtual meeting led by Campbell, who runs a security company. He outlined a plan in which an initial group of 100 residents would pay a C$200 (about £110) monthly subscription for technology which scans the licence plates of cars passing through the virtual “gate”. The US-based company Flock says the AI underpinning the technology can learn which cars belong to residents and which ones are suspicious.
A rollout in the neighbourhood would mark Flock’s entrance into the Canadian market.
Campbell emphasised that the cameras did not use facial recognition, instead collecting licence plate data to create “whitelists” (known) and “blacklists” (suspicious) of vehicles entering the neighbourhood. Data collected by the camera is retained for 30 days and police would only be able to access data with legal authorisation. The system…
