Waterloo first regional city to sign CCTV agreement with police
Posted Dec 11, 2025 04:23:11 AM.
Last Updated Dec 11, 2025 09:39:19 AM.
The new year will come with new surveillance in Waterloo Region.
The Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) penned an agreement with the first of the region’s seven municipalities to install Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras.
The first cameras will go up in Waterloo.
It’s still not clear exactly where those cameras will go, but a report to the Waterloo Regional Police Service Board said the agreement allows them to be installed on city utility poles and restricted to public locations and publicly accessible spaces.
The cameras would also include Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR).
“The WRPS will be solely responsible for owning, installing, operating, and maintaining the cameras…access to the camera footage and ALPR data will be restricted to authorized and properly trained personnel within the WRPS,” read the report.
Speaking to Regional Council back in November, WRPS Deputy Chief, Jen Davis, said the cameras would not be live monitored, and anyone asking for footage would need legal reasons to see it.
Furthermore, any footage that is not used in an investigation would be deleted after 30 days.
In April, the service secured $100,000 in funding from the Ministry of the Solicitor General for its CCTV program. That amount has been matched by the WRPS service budget for a total of $200,000.
The first phase of the camera program includes installing 52 CCTV cameras in 10 different sites across the region.
Police will be posting the locations of cameras on the website in the new year, and will include a sign at each site with a QR code.
“Camera locations will be determined through statistical analysis conducted by the WRPS Crime Analysis Unit. A complete list of deployment sites will be posted here closer to the go-live date,” reads the WRPS website.
That statistical analysis covers three years of historical crime data.
Public information sessions on the new cameras were held in mid-November and can be viewed here.
