privacy surveillance-technology law-enforcement automated-systems

Flock Safety had a car journalist stalked, wrongly accused, and detained

Flock Says Its Cameras Worked 'Correctly' When Police Tracked and Ambushed Me for No Reason

thedrive.com

July 17, 2026

11 min read

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44/100

Summary

Flock Safety's automated license plate cameras were involved in a series of errors that led police to track an individual for several days and conduct a coordinated ambush. The incident has sparked widespread discussions about privacy concerns in America.

Key Takeaways

Flock Safety's AI-powered camera system misidentified a journalist's vehicle as stolen due to a data entry error in the National Crime Information Center database, leading to a police ambush.
The Plymouth Police Department has 18 Flock cameras that read over 580,000 license plates in 30 days, resulting in over 14,800 alerts for suspicious vehicles.
A similar incident occurred shortly after the journalist's experience, where another auto journalist was pulled over for having a license plate that matched a stolen plate entry with a similar error.
The combination of human error and AI limitations in Flock's system raises concerns about privacy and the potential for wrongful detentions.

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