Flock license plate misreads lead to multiple wrongful arrests
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A Business Insider investigation found that Flock Safety's automatic license plate recognition cameras (ALPR) misreads have led to at least 12 incidents of innocent people being pulled over at gunpoint, jailed, or bitten by police dogs, one of which involved the camera misreading a "7" on a license plate as a "2". Flock says it monitors misread rates and incorporates user feedback into training sets, but declined to provide specific data to Business Insider and does not publish a single accuracy figure, saying performance is affected by license plate design, lighting, and environmental factors.
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- AI Incident DatabaseInvestigation of Flock Safety license plate recognition camera misreads: multiple people stopped at gunpoint, jailed, or bitten by police dogs
A Business Insider investigation found that Flock Safety's automatic license plate recognition cameras (ALPR) misreads have led to at least 12 incidents of innocent people being pulled over at gunpoint, jailed, or bitten by police dogs, one of which involved the camera misreading a "7" on a license plate as a "2". Flock says it monitors misread rates and incorporates user feedback into training sets, but declined to provide specific data to Business Insider and does not publish a single accuracy figure, saying performance is affected by license plate design, lighting, and environmental factors. The company completed a $275 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz in spring 2024, at a valuation of $7.5 billion.