Accuracy

[Editorial]

Accuracy counts, but it matters much more in some situations than in others. While accuracy in a cornhole game might not be important, accuracy in reporting crimes is critical. The tech industry and academia give a nice, fancy name to this disparity: "surveillance asymmetry." However, out on the streets, an automation error puts innocent people in life-or-death situations.

'Flock Flocked up'

How a license plate camera misread unraveled one man's life.

Business Insider

By Nicole Einbinder 

Mar 9, 2026

In April 2024, Brandon Upchurch and his cousin were driving home from a convenience store when they noticed flashing lights behind them. When Upchurch pulled over, officers from the Toledo Police Department drew their guns and ordered him out of his red Dodge Ram.

Upchurch initially refused to turn off the engine or exit the truck, and repeatedly asked officers why he was being pulled over. An officer named Adrian Wilson warned that he would deploy his police dog if Upchurch didn't get on the ground. As Upchurch began to get down, Wilson released the animal.

The dog latched onto Upchurch's dreadlocks, rammed his head into the ground, and sunk its teeth into his arm. Wilson later said he thought Upchurch had tripped and was getting ready to run.

"Your car has a stolen license plate on it," one of the officers said. His plates weren't stolen, Upchurch insisted. He was transported to a hospital for his injuries, then sent to the county jail, where he remained for hours. The charges, which were later dismissed, were obstructing official business and resisting arrest.

Flock's stated mission is "shaping the future of safety." Or is it actually bringing us into the dystopian era of George Orwell's 1984 and Big Brother? The Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote back in 2024 about this exact crisis:

The Human Toll of ALPR Errors

By Adam Schwartz

Imagine driving to get your nails done with your family and all of a sudden, you are pulled over by police officers for allegedly driving a stolen car. You are dragged out of the car and detained at gun point. So are your daughter, sister, and nieces. The police handcuff your family, even the children, and force everyone to lie face-down on the pavement, before eventually realizing that they made a mistake. This happened to Brittney Gilliam and her family on a warm Sunday in Aurora, Colorado, in August 2020.

And the error? The police officers who pulled them over were relying on information generated by automated license plate readers (ALPRs). These are high-speed, computer-controlled camera systems that automatically capture all license plate numbers that come into view, upload them to a central server, and compare them to a “hot list” of vehicles sought by police. The ALPR system told the police that Gilliam’s car had the same license plate number as a stolen vehicle. But the stolen vehicle was a motorcycle with Montana plates, while Gilliam’s vehicle was an SUV with Colorado plates.

You don't hear about these "errors" until they get someone killed.

Wrongful detentions like these happen all over the country. In Atherton, California, police officers pulled over Jason Burkleo on his way to work, on suspicion of driving a stolen vehicle. They ordered him at gun point to lie on his stomach to be handcuffed, only to later realize that their license plate reader had misread an ‘H’ for an ‘M’. In Espanola, New Mexico, law enforcement officials detained Jaclynn Gonzales at gun point and placed her 12 year-old sister in the back of a patrol vehicle, before discovering that the reader had mistaken a ‘2’ for a ‘7’ on their license plates. One study found that ALPRs misread the state of 1-in-10 plates (not counting other reading errors).

What someone needs to do is sue the pants off of the ALPR companies. Right now, there are no incentives for the companies to achieve 'Zero Defects.' In the meantime, I hope that no one gets killed.

[/Editorial]