Flock Safety, a company providing automated license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras to law enforcement agencies, has faced scrutiny following an incident where a journalist was mistakenly identified and arrested due to a partial plate match. The incident involved a Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) media fleet vehicle with a New Jersey manufacturer plate, 34 10 DTM, which was flagged as stolen. The original police report for a different stolen vehicle listed the plate as 34 03 DTM. However, when entered into Flock's system, it was recorded simply as "34 DTM," omitting the two-digit number in the middle.
Flock's artificial intelligence system subsequently identified the journalist's vehicle, which bore the plate 34 10 DTM, as a match for the "34 DTM" entry. The company affirmed that its systems functioned as designed, stating that the machine learning correctly read the characters it was instructed to find. A company spokesperson explained that even if the "10" had been standard size, the system would still have flagged it, as it is configured to alert law enforcement if any of the characters on a "hot list" are read. This design choice is intended to accommodate situations where officers may only have partial plate information. The spokesperson emphasized that officers are trained to verify full plate numbers before taking action.
The journalist's experience revealed a broader issue: many JLR media fleet vehicles share a similar New Jersey manufacturer plate structure, 34 ## DTM. An officer involved in the incident noted that this could lead to other JLR vehicles with this structure being incorrectly flagged as stolen nationwide wherever Flock cameras are deployed. Indeed, four other 34 ## DTM vehicles were reportedly being tracked in Minnesota during the same week. JLR is reportedly working with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) to correct the initial report and update Flock's system to prevent further erroneous flagging.
In addition to the ALPR system's matching logic, Flock Safety has also addressed past controversies. The company's CEO issued an apology for previously referring to privacy advocates as "terrorists."
Beyond vehicle tracking, police departments have reportedly utilized Flock camera networks to search for individuals based on physical descriptions or attire, rather than just vehicle information. Examples of such searches include "heavy-set male with a black and white hat," "person on skateboard," and "person wearing orange vest and construction hat." Some searches have also reportedly referenced a target's race or signs of political affiliation.
