By admin 
Roseville police said department policies prevented wrongful traffic stops or arrests despite more than 1,000 incorrect license plate reader alerts generated by Flock Safety cameras between 2023 and 2024, after a recent investigation raised questions about the technology’s accuracy.
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Business Insider reported on Friday that between 2023 and 2024, Flock cameras generated 1,427 alerts for vehicles identified as stolen or linked to felony crimes that passed cameras controlled by the agency in Roseville.
According to data analyzed by the Police Department, 1,011 of those alerts, or 71%, involved a license plate misread.
However, both Roseville police and Flock Safety said that figure lacked important context.
Lt. Nick Gaines, a spokesperson for the Roseville Police Department, confirmed the numbers but emphasized that the 71% figure applied only to alerts generated for stolen or felony vehicles, not to the millions of license plates scanned overall.
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“It should be clarified that 71% is specific to misreads relative to alerts; it is not accurate to imply this number is indicative of misreads relative to all ALPR scans,” Gaines said.
Most notably, the department says none of those incorrect alerts resulted in enforcement action.
“Zero of the 1,011 alerts resulting in a misread have resulted in a contact or an arrest made by the Roseville Police Department,” Gaines said.
According to department policy, an ALPR alert alone does not justify a traffic stop. Officers must independently verify that a vehicle is stolen or develop separate reasonable suspicion or probable cause before initiating enforcement.
Roseville officials said those safeguards, combined with officer training and administrative oversight, prevented false alerts from affecting motorists. Officials said the department has invested significant resources in policies, procedures, training and program oversight to ensure responsible use of the technology.
The department also manually reviews and tracks alert data to identify trends and provide evidence-based feedback to Flock, a process officials described as labor-intensive but valuable for improving system performance.
Business Insider’s investigation detailed several issues reported by Roseville over multiple years, including blurry images, delayed alerts and license plates being confused because of similar-looking characters. The report also highlighted one case in which a local driver’s plate was repeatedly misread, causing multiple erroneous stolen vehicle alerts.
Flock Safety, based in Atlanta, said many of those issues were tied to Roseville’s customized camera deployment.
In a statement, Paris Lewbel, a public relations manager for Flock, said the city opted for a nonstandard installation using older hardware and camera placements that positioned cameras farther from vehicles and higher than the company typically recommends.
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“Roseville had a particularly unique deployment based on their own preferences, which includes older hardware and non-standard installation locations that resulted in the cameras being placed further from the vehicles and higher than we’d typically recommend,” Lewbel said.
Flock also disputed the way the 71% statistic was interpreted.
“The 71% stat is a mischaracterization, as you are conflating felony alerts with overall accuracy reads,” the company representative said.
Flock says that across its nationwide network, the system performs at a much higher level. According to the company, only nine out of every one million alerts sent to law enforcement are ultimately flagged as inaccurate.
The company added that it meets with Roseville police officials twice each month and said police representatives recently expressed appreciation for what it described as “dramatic improvements” to the city’s deployment.
“We have worked with their team to ensure a custom deployment that has significantly improved over the last 6 months,” Lewbel said.
Roseville officials said they continue working closely with the company while monitoring the system’s performance.
“As with any technology, ALPRs are not without error, but our agency has made a focused effort to put appropriate measures in place, ensuring responsible use of ALPR,” Gaines said. “We remain committed to constant improvement, proven through our strong vendor partnership, through which we facilitate open and honest communication to address issues and provide our personnel with effective tools to best serve our community.”
Despite the reported misreads, the department says the cameras continue to provide significant investigative value.
One recent example involved a hit-and-run crash in a Walmart parking lot in which a pickup truck towing a boat struck a parked vehicle before leaving the scene. Police said Flock cameras helped investigators trace the truck and boat to Folsom Lake, where officers, assisted by the Placer County Marine Unit, located the suspect and closed the case.
Roseville officials said examples like that are why the city continues its partnership with Flock.
“Roseville continues our partnership with Flock because the tool has proven impact on solving crimes and keeping our community safe,” Gaines said.
While acknowledging that automated license plate readers are not error-free, department officials said safeguards, including a policy prohibiting officers from using an ALPR alert as the sole basis for a traffic stop, have prevented camera misreads from resulting in wrongful traffic stops or arrests.
The department said it remains committed to refining the program through ongoing oversight, regular communication with Flock and continued review of system performance.
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