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NOPE
Medium reported severity Involving minors Lawsuit Settled

Española, New Mexico: police stopped a 21-year-old woman and her 12-year-old sister in July 2023 and handcuffed both in the backs of police cars after a Flock license-plate camera misread a 2 on her plate as a 7 and flagged the car as stolen; the sisters sued the city and settled in 2025

On 23 July 2023 Española police officers pulled over a car driven by a 21-year-old woman with her 12-year-old sister as a passenger, after a Flock Safety camera at an intersection flagged the car's plate as belonging to a vehicle stolen in Rio Rancho. According to the sisters' lawsuits, reported by the Santa Fe New Mexican in January 2024, the camera had read a 2 on the plate as a 7, and officers handcuffed both sisters and placed them in the backs of separate police vehicles before discovering the error; the older sister had asked an officer to call their mother, who lived nearby, to collect the girl. The suits sought damages for anxiety, fear, worry and restriction of movement. Business Insider, which reviewed the body-camera footage and incident report, reported in March 2026 that officers said the number was obscured by a license plate cover although it is visible in the footage, and that the family settled with the city in 2025.

AI system
Flock Safety license plate readers
Flock Safety
Occurred
23 Jul 2023
Reported
8 January 2024
Event location
United States
What the AI did
Made a claim about the person
Reported harm
Loss of LibertyPsychological Distress
Whose AI use
An institution’s AI use
Setting
Justice
Evidence
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources
5 claims: 2 corroborated, 1 disputed, 2 reported. 3 open questions
People reported harmed
2 people

AI system as recorded: Flock Safety automated license-plate-reader camera at an Española intersection (described by Business Insider as one of Flock's AI cameras) that misread the car's plate, matched it to a stolen-vehicle record and notified police

What Happened

The Santa Fe New Mexican (8 January 2024) reported two lawsuits against the city of Española. According to the suits, Española police officers pulled the sisters over on 23 July 2023 on Calle Duran after the car passed an intersection equipped with a Flock Safety camera, which incorrectly flagged its plate as belonging to a vehicle stolen in Rio Rancho; the plate was one digit different, ending in a 2 that the camera read as a 7. Officers handcuffed both sisters and placed them in the backs of police vehicles before discovering the error; the older sister asked an officer to call their mother to pick up the 12-year-old, and officers instead handcuffed the girl and put her in a different police vehicle. The suits sought damages including compensation for anxiety, fear, worry and restriction of movement. The city, its police chief and Flock did not respond to the newspaper. Business Insider (9 March 2026), reviewing body-camera footage and an incident report, reported that Flock notified police that the car was stolen, that officers ordered the sisters out and handcuffed them, that the incident report says the camera misread a 2 as a 7 and that officers said a plate cover obscured the number although it is visible in the footage, and that the family settled with the city in 2025.

Reported harm

Both sisters, one of them 12, were handcuffed and held in the backs of police vehicles after the misread alert; their lawsuits claimed anxiety, fear, worry and restriction of movement (Santa Fe New Mexican). The family settled with the city in 2025 (Business Insider).

Outcome

Resolved

The older sister filed suit against the city of Española in state district court on 3 January 2024, and their mother filed a separate complaint on the younger sister's behalf (Santa Fe New Mexican). Business Insider reports that the family settled with the city in 2025; settlement terms were not reported.

What remains unknown

  • Settlement terms and date in 2025.
  • The state district court case numbers; the complaints were not read.
  • How long the sisters were held before officers found the error.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: supported. The sisters' lawsuits (Santa Fe New Mexican) say a Flock Safety camera incorrectly flagged the plate as belonging to a stolen vehicle, reading a 2 as a 7; Business Insider reports the incident report records the same misread and describes the cameras as Flock's AI cameras. The plate match against a stolen-vehicle record is the automated system's claim about the car; the decision to handcuff both sisters was the officers'.

5 claims: 2 corroborated, 1 disputed, 2 reported. What the statuses mean

Corroborated In July 2023 Española police stopped the sisters' car after a Flock camera alert identified it as stolen, and officers ordered both sisters out and handcuffed them, including the 12-year-old.

Causal attribution. The lawsuits as reported, and Business Insider's separate review of the body-camera footage.

  • santafenewmexican.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'pulled the sisters over July 23 on Calle Duran after they had passed through an intersection equipped with a Flock Safety camera, which incorrectly flagged their car’s license plate as belonging to a stolen vehicle, according to the lawsuits.'; 'officers pulled the vehicle over and handcuffed them before placing them in the back of police vehicles prior to discovering the error.'
  • businessinsider.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'when Flock notified police that her Kia was stolen.'; 'Body camera footage from the July 2023 stop shows officers stopping the sisters and ordering them to exit the car, before handcuffing them.'
Corroborated The camera misread a 2 on the plate as a 7.

Causal attribution. The sisters' complaint (as reported by the Santa Fe New Mexican) and the police incident report (as reported by Business Insider) agree on the misread.

Reported The sisters' lawsuits sought damages including compensation for anxiety, fear, worry and restriction of movement; the older sister had asked an officer to call their mother to collect the 12-year-old, and officers instead handcuffed the girl.

Causal attribution. The sisters' complaints as reported.

  • santafenewmexican.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'compensation for personal injuries including “anxiety, fear, worry and restriction of movement.”'; 'Instead, officers handcuffed the girl and put her in the back of a different police vehicle, according to the complaint.'
Reported The family filed lawsuits against the city of Española and settled with the city in 2025.

Causal attribution. Filing reported by the Santa Fe New Mexican; settlement reported by Business Insider without terms.

Disputed Officers said a license plate cover obscured the number; Business Insider says the number is visible in the body-camera footage it reviewed.

Causal attribution. Officers' explanation as reported by Business Insider, contradicted by Business Insider's own review of the footage.

Sources

2 sources inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read on 2026-10-04 from the Internet Archive 2026 capture (Santa Fe New Mexican, 8 January 2024); the live site returned HTTP 429. Reports the two complaints and the attorney's comments. Applies to s1.

Read live on 2026-10-04 (Business Insider, 9 March 2026); full text present in the served page. Draws on its own review of body-camera footage and the incident report. Applies to s2.

Event countries: United States. Affected-person countries: United States. Court countries: United States.

The stop took place on Calle Duran in Española, New Mexico; the sisters are from Rio Arriba County, and the suits were filed in New Mexico state district court (Santa Fe New Mexican).

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-04: Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as an institutional-use case consistent with the held Flock misread rows: the sisters' lawsuits (Santa Fe New Mexican) and the police incident report and body-camera footage reviewed by Business Insider describe a Flock license-plate-camera misread that led officers to handcuff a 21-year-old and her 12-year-old sister. Neither sister is named here.

People described

Two sisters from Rio Arriba County, New Mexico: the 21-year-old driver and owner of the car, and her 12-year-old sister, a passenger

People reported harmed in this case

2 people

0 AI participants · 2 other people harmed

Two people, the sisters, both handcuffed and placed in police vehicles (Santa Fe New Mexican; Business Insider). Exact 2.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#flock#alpr#license-plate-reader#misread#wrongful-stop#handcuffed#new-mexico#espanola#justice#settlement

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Española, New Mexico: police stopped a 21-year-old woman and her 12-year-old sister in July 2023 and handcuffed both in the backs of police cars after a Flock license-plate camera misread a 2 on her plate as a 7 and flagged the car as stolen; the sisters sued the city and settled in 2025. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2023-espanola-new-mexico-flock-alpr-misread-plate-sisters-handcuffed-lawsuits

BibTeX

@misc{2023_espanola_new_mexico_flock_alpr_misread_plate_sisters_handcuffed_lawsuits,
  title = {Española, New Mexico: police stopped a 21-year-old woman and her 12-year-old sister in July 2023 and handcuffed both in the backs of police cars after a Flock license-plate camera misread a 2 on her plate as a 7 and flagged the car as stolen; the sisters sued the city and settled in 2025},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2023-espanola-new-mexico-flock-alpr-misread-plate-sisters-handcuffed-lawsuits}
}

Related cases

High Flock Safety license plate readers

San Diego: three men are arrested after police treat a Flock license-plate-reader photo of a red Alfa Romeo, taken five miles from where officers had just tried to stop the suspect car, as a hit; one spends nearly a month in jail before charges are dropped

Times of San Diego reported on 7 June 2026, from police reports and tort claims, that on 26 November 2025 San Diego police pursued a red Alfa Romeo after an attempted carjacking in Golden Hill but did not get its plate. A Flock automated license plate reader in Old Town, five miles away, captured a photo of a red Alfa Romeo 23 seconds after the stop attempt, and a pursuing detective recognized it by its red paint and tinted windows. Officers arrested three men leaving that car at an Old Town cigar lounge; the victim identified the passenger in a curbside lineup, and a search found no weapons. The driver bailed out the next day; the passenger spent nearly a month in jail, missing Thanksgiving, before the assault with a firearm and evasion charges were dropped. The two men's tort claims say police misread their own surveillance system; their attorney said the city had denied the claims and that a lawsuit would follow.

High Flock Safety license plate readers

Florida: Lindsey Isaacs jailed 13 days on vehicular-homicide charges after troopers treated a Flock license-plate-reader sighting of her SUV as identification; charges dropped and another driver arrested

After a crash on Interstate 4 near DeBary, Florida, on 4 October 2025 killed three people, a Flock Safety automated license-plate reader recorded Lindsey Isaacs's black Dodge Durango about three miles west of the scene two minutes before the collision. Although a 911 caller had described a maroon Durango with a partial plate that did not match, and a Florida Highway Patrol inspection found no crash damage on her SUV, she was arrested on 17 April 2026 on eight felony counts including three of vehicular homicide, spent 13 days in jail (the first several in solitary) and two weeks on bond, and her SUV was impounded for months. On 22 May 2026 the State Attorney's Office declined to prosecute all eight charges and troopers arrested another woman said to have been driving a maroon Durango. Isaacs has filed a federal civil-rights suit against two troopers; Flock Safety says its cameras provide leads, not identifications, and that its data was exculpatory. Florida's attorney general called it 'not a good case'.

Medium Flock Safety license plate readers

Morristown, Tennessee: police held a grandmother and grandfather at gunpoint and handcuffed them in June 2025, with their 3-year-old granddaughter left in the car, after a Flock alert flagged the grandmother's vanity plate, which matched a recovered stolen pickup's plate spelled with a zero; police say the stop rested on the crime database

In June 2025 Morristown, Tennessee, police stopped a couple driving their 3-year-old granddaughter to a doctor's appointment, held them at gunpoint and handcuffed them both. The grandmother's personalized plate spelled a nickname with the letter O; a Ford F-150 reported stolen in Claiborne County carried the same word spelled with a zero. Business Insider reported in March 2026 that officers received a Flock alert that the plate was stolen, that the Flock investigative summary recorded the couple's plate with a zero, and that the stolen pickup had already been recovered but was never removed from the system. The police department told WATE that the officer ran the tag as displayed, with an O, and that with either character it showed as stolen in the crime information database; the police chief told Business Insider that officers relied on the National Crime Information Center as protocol requires. The grandfather told WATE that he thought he might be shot and felt humiliated, and the grandmother said she was crying as she heard her granddaughter calling for her.

High Flock Safety license plate readers

Toledo, Ohio: police stopped a man's pickup at gunpoint in April 2024 after a Flock license-plate camera misread his plate as stolen, released a police dog that bit him, and charged him; prosecutors dropped the charges and he later settled a lawsuit for $35,000

On 11 April 2024 Toledo police officers stopped a pickup truck after a Flock license-plate camera alerted them to a stolen plate. According to the police report and body-camera footage reported by 13abc and ABC News, the camera had misread the plate, which was not stolen. Officers drew their guns, ordered the driver out and to the ground, and a K-9 handler released a police dog as he began to kneel. The driver told ABC News he was bitten seven times on his forearm and elbow, was traumatized and could not work; he was arrested and charged with obstruction, resisting arrest and, later, failure to comply. Prosecutors dropped all charges in August 2024. The department found the dog deployment within policy and reprimanded the officer who made the stop for failing to visually verify the plate against the reader's information. Business Insider reported in March 2026 that police records show the camera read a 7 on the plate as a 2, that the man lost feeling in his fingers, gave up his lawn-care business and forklift work, sold his truck and was evicted, and that he had sued the officer and the city and settled in October for $35,000.

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