{"id":17862,"date":"2026-07-04T07:49:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T14:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/?p=17862"},"modified":"2026-07-04T07:49:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T14:49:33","slug":"enduring-indignity-study-finds-license-plate-reader-failures-cause-major-headaches-for-drivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/2026\/07\/04\/enduring-indignity-study-finds-license-plate-reader-failures-cause-major-headaches-for-drivers\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Enduring Indignity\u2019: Study Finds License Plate Reader Failures Cause Major Headaches for Drivers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If the number of misreads is correct in the article, that&#8217;s a pretty high percentage and doesn&#8217;t meet the requirement for any trust. And we&#8217;re seeing with these electronic systems, law enforcement is being lazy and not doing due diligence. And people spending days in jail before it&#8217;s rectified is horrible, but at least you can get a decent payday afterwards. And I&#8217;d get as much money as possible as a message for them to reform their behavior and policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wndnewscenter.org\/enduring-indignity-study-finds-license-plate-reader-failures-cause-major-headaches-for-drivers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.wndnewscenter.org\/enduring-indignity-study-finds-license-plate-reader-failures-cause-major-headaches-for-drivers\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-ub-divider ub_divider ub-divider-orientation-horizontal\" id=\"ub_divider_25fad09c-911b-4319-8fc2-44671835b478\"><div class=\"ub_divider_wrapper\" style=\"position: relative; margin-bottom: 2px; width: 100%; height: 2px; \" data-divider-alignment=\"center\"><div class=\"ub_divider_line\" style=\"border-top: 2px solid #ccc; margin-top: 2px; \"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wndnewscenter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/traffic-light-camera-unsplash.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By Bob Unruh<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An innocent driver is stopped by a gun-waving police officer who sics a dog on him and he ends up in jail for hours, or even days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s happening more and more in America, a new study confirms, and it\u2019s all because the technology for machines to read license plate numbers, and report them, fails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The results are from a study by the <a href=\"https:\/\/ij.org\/dozens-of-innocent-motorists-have-been-pulled-over-detained-at-gunpoint-or-jailed-due-to-ai-license-plate-camera-errors\/\">Institute for Justice,<\/a> which confirmed such cases coming up over and over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The list, large already, is growing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A Colorado driver was repeatedly pulled over after officers mistakenly put his license plate number on a Flock hotlist. (The cameras were developed by Flock Safety.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Based on a Flock capture, officers mistook an innocent driver\u2019s car for one that was at the scene of a deadly accident. The driver was jailed for 13 days.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A Flock camera misread a digit on an innocent couple\u2019s vehicle, prompting officers to pull them over and order them out of the car at gunpoint.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Another Colorado driver was repeatedly pulled over after officers mistakenly put her license plate number on a Flock hotlist.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Based on a Flock capture, officers mistook an innocent driver\u2019s car for one that was at the scene of an attempted carjacking. The driver was jailed for nearly one month.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>An officer misinterpreted Flock captures to blame an innocent woman for a series of thefts.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Yet another Colorado driver was repeatedly pulled over after officers mistakenly put her license plate number on a Flock hotlist.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>After data in the Flock system incorrectly linked a suspect\u2019s vehicle to his innocent father, officers detained the wrong man.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It gets worse, the study confirmed, \u201cFebruary of this year, a Flock camera in Sherwood, Arkansas, misread the license plate of an SUV, leading officers to detain an innocent couple at gunpoint while their six-week-old baby sat alone in a car seat in the back of the vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the officers admitted, \u201cI\u2019m not gonna say they\u2019re completely perfect, because, you know, that\u2019s modern technology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The IJ reported, \u201cIn recent months, stories have proliferated about innocent motorists enduring the indignity of being pulled over repeatedly until police departments figure out the root cause of the ALPR errors. But those drivers have it relatively easy: in nearly two-thirds of the cases IJ analyzed, officers did not realize their error until after they had drawn and pointed their guns at innocent people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEvery one of those stops is a high-risk encounter where a wrong move, a misunderstanding, or a moment of fear can turn deadly,\u201d said Michael Soyfer, a lawyer for the IJ who is representing residents of San Jose and Norfolk in lawsuits challenging their cities\u2019 ALPR surveillance networks. \u201cNo one should have to prove their innocence on the side of the road because a camera couldn\u2019t tell a zero from an O.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The report said the errors are due largely to Flock Safety, \u201cwhich in the past several years has become the leading ALPR provider in the market. The company claims its cameras accurately capture 93 out of every 100 license plates that pass by them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But with the company\u2019s agenda to read 20 billion plates a month, that means there\u2019s more than a billion inaccurate readings during that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe machines often have trouble distinguishing between visually similar characters, like 0 and O, or 2 and 7,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But there also are human errors, and officers enter the wrong information, or misinterpret what the data delivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The report confirms: \u201cLast year in San Diego, for instance, officers were searching for a red Alfa Romeo connected to an attempted carjacking. The officers didn\u2019t have a plate and were instead relying on Flock\u2019s \u2018vehicle signature\u2019 technology, which captures detailed characteristics of individual cars like make, model, and color. The Flock system gave them a positive hit on a superficially matching car\u2014but it was a totally different red Alfa Romeo, located five miles away from the crime at the time it occurred. Officers nevertheless arrested all three of the car\u2019s occupants. One passenger spent nearly a month behind bars during the holidays before officers realized their error and set him free.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Constitution requires real suspicion before the government can seize someone at gunpoint, and a computer hit that no one bothered to confirm doesn\u2019t come close,\u201d Soyfer charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If the number of misreads is correct in the article, that&#8217;s a pretty high percentage and doesn&#8217;t meet the requirement for any trust. And we&#8217;re seeing with these electronic systems, law enforcement is being lazy and not doing due diligence. And people spending days in jail before it&#8217;s rectified is horrible, but at least you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech","category-world"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason","author_link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/author\/jturning\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17863,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17862\/revisions\/17863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}