Bodycam footage of a driver and his girlfriend being handcuffed due to a Flock camera error has gone viral. The video shows police in Arkansas mistakenly pulling over an SUV because its license plate was flagged by one of the controversial license plate readers as being stolen. Officers had their guns drawn at the vehicle as they detained the couple, with the man’s son and the woman’s one-month-old child still in the car.
Flock camera read the car’s license plate wrong by one letter
On February 11 at around 5:30 p.m., police officers stopped a black Chevrolet Tahoe in a Kohl’s parking lot after a Flock camera notified them that the vehicle was stolen, as seen on bodycam footage shared by user @JasonBassler1 on X (formerly Twitter) and by a report from local outlet KATV.
One officer draws his weapon and tells the driver to get out of the SUV with his hands up before cuffing and detaining him in the backseat of the patrol car. About two minutes later, another officer at the scene draws his firearm as well and handcuffs his girlfriend from the backseat.
The couple is confused as to why they were being handcuffed and the girlfriend is bewildered when the officer tells her that the Flock system said her vehicle was stolen. Fortunately, both of them remained calm and collected as police investigated the matter further.
That’s when one of the officers discovered that the license plate of the vehicle was “APX55X” when the plate of the stolen car they were looking for was “APX55Y.” The border around the car’s license plate jutted out in a way that obscured part of the last letter.
After realizing their mistake, the officers released the couple. That said, they could have checked the SUV’s license plate first before detaining the couple in the first place.
However, this isn’t the first time that a Flock camera error has led police to waste time and resources handcuffing innocent people with their guns drawn. And as more police departments across America install Flock cameras, the chances that they make a mistake will increase.
