A simple error got magnified by Flock’s nationwide surveillance camera network and ended with four cop cars boxing me in.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
By Joel Feder<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAre you armed?!\u201d the police officer screamed. \u201cGet out of the car!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On an otherwise normal Sunday afternoon in late June, I\u2019d decided to take the $155,000 Range Rover I was testing that week out to run some errands with my wife. Little did I know that choice would complete a technological chain linking surveillance cameras, AI, and law enforcement that led to me and my wife being surrounded by police, hands on their guns, in a Kohl\u2019s parking lot in suburban Minnesota.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After dropping off our Amazon returns, we\u2019d just gotten back in the Range Rover and reversed maybe two feet out of the spot when four cop cars came flying out of nowhere and boxed us in. The officers jumped out and started shouting. It\u2019s a situation that can quickly and frequently turn bad, so as unprepared as I was, I followed their orders, got out with my hands up, and tried to figure out what the hell was happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually, after a tense hour, I did. The Plymouth Police Department had been tracking me for days using Flock license plate cameras, waiting for the right moment to strike, because they thought I\u2019d stolen the Range Rover. And the reason I was ID\u2019d as a dangerous car thief was a simple data error made 2,000 miles away in California, creating an edge case within an edge case that Flock\u2019s AI camera network was unable to handle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We now live in a surveillance state where cameras mounted on stoplights are tracking our cars, our devices, our pets, and even us<\/a>. This is just the beginning; next, these cameras could be put in motion using our kids\u2019 school buses<\/a>. Whether you\u2019ve actually stolen a car or are just rolling down the road having done nothing wrong, like me, once these systems have you in their crosshairs, there\u2019s pretty much only one way it can go. Welcome to the future. It\u2019s scary out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back in the Kohl\u2019s lot, I was standing there with my hands up, still getting over the shock of throwing the Range Rover in reverse and seeing four cop cars materialize on the backup camera, lights blazing. Officer Max Ganshyn asked me again if I was armed or if I had any firearms in the vehicle while two officers circled around the passenger side to get my wife out. He patted me down, and when he realized I presented no risk, he asked for my ID. Then he asked who owned the Range Rover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s a complicated answer, and I\u2019m happy to explain, but I\u2019m going to need you to be patient,\u201d I replied. I tried explaining what The Drive <\/em>is, what I do for a living, and how I could be driving a six-figure luxury SUV that doesn\u2019t belong to me. A confused look crossed his face. \u201cYeah, I\u2019m not a car guy,\u201d he said. Fortunately, one of the other officers had heard of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other side of the car, the officers were busy grilling my wife; our stories lined up because we were telling the truth, and they seemed to relax a bit. But they still weren\u2019t letting us go. I sensed my opportunity and asked point blank: What is going on here, and why are we being detained?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe plates on this car are stolen,\u201d Officer Ganshyn said. My face must\u2019ve twisted in disbelief because he continued, saying they weren\u2019t sure whether the car itself or just the plates were stolen. This made absolutely no sense. Car companies keep meticulous track of the fleets they loan out to the media. The vehicles all have special manufacturer or dealer plates that are logged every time one enters or exits. The officers eventually ran the Range Rover\u2019s VIN, and it came back clean, but in their view, the plates were definitely stolen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before I could even process that, another officer dropped the big surprise: they\u2019d actually been tracking me around town for days via Flock cameras. But they kept losing the trail, so when a camera alerted them that the Range Rover had been spotted turning into Kohl\u2019s that morning, they quickly set up their ambush and waited for me and my wife to walk out of the store and get into the SUV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was blown away, but somehow still with it enough to ask if I could see the camera footage. One of the officers pulled out his phone, opened the Flock app, and showed me two photos: a wide shot of the Range Rover going through the intersection and a zoomed-in shot of the New Jersey license plate, which clearly reads 34 10 DTM and says VEHICLE MFR along the bottom. Critically, the number 10 is in a much smaller font than the rest of the tag, which is the non-standard structure New Jersey uses for manufacturer plates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Again, I tried to explain that I had no idea why a license plate on a press car would be flagged like this. \u201cCan you get Range Rover on the phone?\u201d Officer Ganshyn asked. A tall order on a Sunday. As I started dialing, he added that the plate was reported stolen by a Jaguar Land Rover dealership in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a few tries, I managed to get someone at JLR on the phone and handed the call off to the officer, who spoke with them for about 10 minutes. He hung up and came back over with an explanation that clarified everything in an instant, but somehow made it worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The New Jersey plates that were allegedly stolen from the LA dealer were 34 03<\/em> DTM<\/strong>, not 34 10<\/em> DTM<\/strong>. But when the police report was created and the plate was entered into Flock\u2019s system, it was just recorded as 34 DTM<\/strong>. Just the five large characters, no little number in the middle. And Flock\u2019s AI tech wasn\u2019t registering that non-standard little number when it began picking up the Range Rover around town. It just saw 34 DTM<\/strong> in large type and started alerting the local police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we all stood there shaking our heads, including my wife, who was finally allowed to join me, I connected the final dot. A lot of vehicles in JLR\u2019s media fleet have a New Jersey manufacturer plate with the same alphanumeric structure\u201434 ## DTM\u2014and Officer Ganshyn observed that meant it was now a nationwide issue. Anywhere a police department has a partnership with Flock, any other JLR-owned car with the same plate structure is going to get flagged as stolen. In fact, four other 34 ## DTM<\/strong> cars were being tracked around Minnesota that week, according to Officer Ganshyn. I was just the first one to get nabbed. The only way to stop it would be for the LAPD to correct their initial report and update Flock\u2019s system, which Jaguar Land Rover was now racing to make happen following the phone call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, he warned me to drive straight home, park the Range Rover, and leave it there. If I were to cross into the neighboring town, I\u2019d probably get flagged again and go through this entire ordeal again with a different set of officers. His parting words were ominous: \u201cYou\u2019re lucky we\u2019re in Plymouth. If you were in Minneapolis, they definitely would\u2019ve come at you with guns drawn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Range](\"https:\/\/www.thedrive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_4873-e1782941106261.jpg?quality=85&w=2048\")
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