SurveillanceMedium
York County, South Carolina, Deputies Reportedly Held Local Motorist at Gunpoint After Flock Safety License-Plate Reader Misread
- Occurred
- Feb 14, 2024
- Published
- Jul 9, 2026
- Source
- AI Incident Database
Summary
Steven Melvin, a 42-year-old York County, South Carolina, motorist was reportedly detained at gunpoint for more than five minutes after a Flock Safety automated license-plate reader misidentified the first letter of his plate and matched his BMW to a similar stolen vehicle. The sheriff’s office later said an illegal tinted plate cover caused the malfunction and found the deputy’s actions “reasonable”; Flock said alerts should be independently verified before enforcement.
Developers
- Surveillance technology developers
- Flock Safety
- Automated license plate reader (ALPR) developers
Deployers
- York County Sheriff's Office (South Carolina)
- Police departments in the United States
- Law enforcement
- Kyle Brogden
Harmed parties
- Steven Melvin
- Road users
- Motorists
- Epistemic integrity
- Drivers
Classification
Category confidence: 90%
Severity confidence: 85%
Rationale: Automated license-plate reader system malfunction led to wrongful detention at gunpoint.
Classifier: Qwen/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-FP8