LAPD Regularly Pulled over Innocent People Plate Readers Flagged Cars as Stolen

3 hours ago

The LAPD will not renew its contract with automated license plate reader (ALPR) company Flock after an audit found improper investigations.
An audit revealed that in a two-month period, 161 people were wrongly flagged as driving stolen vehicles due to inaccurate or outdated ALPR data.
Innocent individuals have been subjected to high-risk police stops, including being tracked, pulled over, and even jailed, because of ALPR system errors.
The LAPD’s ALPR cameras generated over 210.5 million license plate reads in two months, but most hot list hits resulted in no police action.
Many false alerts occurred because license plates remained on hot lists after stolen vehicles were recovered, often due to delays by other jurisdictions.
The OIG report recommends suspending new ALPR contracts, strengthening oversight, and conducting a broader reassessment of data practices.
The LAPD recovered 337 stolen cars and made 74 arrests using ALPR data during the audit period, but the system's issues led to the contract expiration.

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