Rosedale's AI Camera Fence: Who's Inside, Who's Out

Opening

Hello, subscriber. Have you ever noticed CCTV cameras in your neighborhood? You’ve probably seen them everywhere — South Korea is full of them. It would almost feel strange, even unsettling, not to have any. But did you know that in the US, Canada, and Europe, proposing to install CCTV can spark protests and outright rejection? Today I want to tell you about something happening in a Canadian neighborhood.

What’s unfolding right now in Toronto reveals the flip side of that fantasy. One hundred residents of the wealthy Rosedale neighborhood are planning to pay C$200 (~₩200,000) a month each to build a “virtual gated community¹” — an AI license-plate-recognition camera network that would monitor the entire area. Like Jarvis protecting Tony Stark in Iron Man, the idea is that AI will watch over the neighborhood. Children threatened at knifepoint, neighbors who can’t sleep at night — the fear is real.

But reading this news, a different question came to mind. The moment we hand AI the keys, whose AI does it become? And just how many doors can that key open?

🔍 What Happened in Rosedale

Crime is falling across Toronto as a whole. As of 2025, homicides dropped roughly 47% year over year, hitting a 40-year low, while break-ins fell about 14% and robberies about 19%. And yet the break-in rate in the Rosedale–Moore Park area is more than 2 times the citywide average. What’s interesting is that this isn’t unique to Rosedale. Most of Toronto’s wealthy residential areas — Bridle Path, Princess-Rosethorn, St. Andrew-Windfields — show the same pattern: low violent crime, but unusually high property crime. Wealthy neighborhoods become precise targets for property crime. Expensive homes, expensive belongings, and relatively easy-to-breach security — a rational choice for criminals.

The plan is led by Craig Campbell, a resident who runs a security company. And here’s a crucial fact: he’s also the Canadian license holder for Flock Safety, the American company that built the surveillance system. He’s said himself that he has “a commercial interest in this business.” Genuine concern for safety and commercial motive are tangled together here.

In the residents’ WhatsApp group, more than 60 of roughly 350 members were already splitting the cost of private security. That tells you the fear is real — but it also tells you that “purchasing safety” has already become an everyday structure.