SurveillanceHigh
Flock Safety License-Plate Reader Reportedly Misread Plate Digit, Prompting Gunpoint Stop of Two Sisters in Española, New Mexico
- Occurred
- Jul 28, 2023
- Published
- Jan 8, 2024
- Source
- AI Incident Database
Summary
In July 2023, Española police stopped Jaclynn Gonzales and her 12-year-old sister after a Flock Safety license-plate reader reportedly read the final digit of Gonzales's plate as 7 rather than 2, matching a stolen plate. Body-camera reporting showed officers drew guns and handcuffed both before confirming the mismatch. The sisters later sued; Española police said officers followed procedure.
Developers
- Surveillance technology developers
- Flock Safety
- Automated license plate reader (ALPR) developers
Deployers
- Law enforcement
- Española Police Department (New Mexico)
Harmed parties
- Women and girls
- Women
- Road users
- Privacy
- Motorists
- Misidentified individuals
- Minors
- Jaclynn Gonzales and her 12-year-old sister
- Girls
- Epistemic integrity
Classification
Category confidence: 90%
Severity confidence: 85%
Rationale: Flock Safety license plate reader error led to dangerous police stop and lawsuit.
Classifier: Qwen/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-FP8