Police Used Flock Cameras to Accuse the Wrong Woman Over a $25 Package
The short version: A Colorado woman was wrongly tied to a $25 package theft after Flock ALPR data misidentified her Rivian, showing how easily these systems produce false accusations.
Our Take
Credit to Liminal for digging into this one, because it's exactly the kind of story that gets buried under Flock Safety's marketing about "solving crime." A $25 package theft turned into a wrongful accusation against Chrisanna Elser, whose Rivian got flagged by license-plate camera data that police treated as solid evidence instead of what it actually is: a probabilistic guess that can and does misfire.
This is the quiet danger of ALPR dragnets. They don't just watch for stolen cars or Amber Alerts — they sweep up every plate that passes, feed it into a database, and let officers draw conclusions from pattern matches that are often sloppier than the public assumes. When the stakes are a stolen package, the harm is embarrassment and stress. When the stakes are higher, the same shaky process can end in handcuffs, warrants, or worse, all built on a camera's best guess rather than a human's verified observation.
Cases like this are why we keep pushing people to find out whether these cameras are watching their own streets. Check our camera map to see what's nearby, and if you want to push back on unchecked ALPR deployment in your town, our take-action page has concrete steps to get started.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Liminal, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.