Skip to content
TopicTracker
From HackerNewsView original
TranslationTranslation

Flock Cameras Wrongly Tracked Me for Days over 'Stolen' Plates

A The Drive reporter was wrongly tracked for days by Flock's license plate recognition cameras after the system flagged his plates as stolen due to a data entry error. Despite the error eventually being cleared, the reporter remained in the system, leading to multiple police visits. The incident highlights concerns about the accuracy and oversight of automated surveillance technology.

Background

Flock Safety is a U.S. company that sells AI-powered license-plate reader cameras to police departments, homeowners' associations, and businesses. Its cameras capture and log every plate that passes, flagging vehicles linked to warrants or stolen plates. Critics argue the system enables mass surveillance with little oversight, and that false flags (like the one described here, where a legitimate plate is mistakenly tagged as stolen) can trigger police stops based on an automated alert rather than observed wrongdoing. The article's author was repeatedly pulled over over several days because Flock's database wrongly associated his plate number with a stolen vehicle — a scenario that highlights the practical risks of relying on fallible automated surveillance data for policing decisions.

Related stories