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Medium reported severity Lawsuit Filed

York County, South Carolina: Iraq War veteran Steven Melvin says deputies held him at gunpoint and made him kneel for more than five minutes outside his Lake Wylie apartment complex in February 2024 after a Flock license-plate reader misread his plate and flagged his BMW as stolen; he sued in June 2026

According to a lawsuit filed on 29 June 2026 and reported by The Herald (Rock Hill), a York County sheriff's deputy stopped Steven Melvin, 42, on 14 February 2024 as he pulled into his apartment complex near Lake Wylie, after receiving a Flock license-plate-reader alert that a stolen dark-coloured BMW sedan was in the area. The deputy approached Melvin's black BMW with his gun drawn and aimed at him and made him kneel with his hands over his head for more than five minutes; after calling for backup and checking his information, the deputy determined the car was not stolen. The camera had read the first letter of his South Carolina tag incorrectly, matching a stolen BMW one letter off. A sheriff's internal-affairs review in November 2024 found the deputy's actions reasonable and blamed an illegally tinted plate cover, for which Melvin received a verbal warning; an email cited in the filing says the cameras had read his plate correctly 13 times that month. Melvin says the stop caused him trauma and emotional distress. The sheriff's office removed the case to federal court in August 2026 and denies violating his rights.

AI system
Flock Safety license plate readers
Flock Safety
Occurred
14 Feb 2024
Reported
9 July 2026
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 reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts
5 claims: 1 documented, 4 reported. 3 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: Flock Safety automated license-plate reader (a camera the Herald describes as AI-enabled) that read passing plates, matched Melvin's misread plate against a stolen-vehicle hotlist record and sent an alert to the deputy

What Happened

The Herald (Rock Hill), 9 July 2026, reported the lawsuit filed on 29 June in York County. According to the filing, The deputy received an alert from a Flock license-plate reader that a stolen, dark-coloured BMW sedan was travelling in the area; on 14 February 2024 he stopped Melvin as he pulled into his apartment complex near Lake Wylie, approached Melvin's black BMW with his gun drawn and aimed 'directly at him', and detained him kneeling on the ground with his hands over his head for over five minutes. After backup arrived and the deputy reviewed Melvin's information, he determined the vehicle was not stolen. The camera had misidentified the first letter of the plate; Melvin's South Carolina tag was one letter off the stolen car's. The sheriff's office said Melvin's tinted plate cover was illegal and obscured the camera; he received a verbal warning and removed the cover at the scene. In a complaint attached to the lawsuit Melvin said he suffered trauma and emotional distress. A November 2024 internal-affairs review by a sheriff's office captain, made after Melvin complained, found the deputy's actions reasonable and attributed the misread to the cover, but an email from another sheriff's office captain cited in the filing says the cameras had correctly identified the plate 13 times that month before the stop. The Post and Courier (19 August 2026) quotes the internal-affairs report: 'The stop resulted from erroneous information associated with a Flock alert'; it describes Melvin as handcuffed, where the Herald describes him kneeling. Flock told the Herald its readers are highly accurate and that alerts should be treated as investigative leads to be verified before enforcement action. The federal docket shows the case removed on 14 August 2026; Military.com reports a pending request to dismiss, arguing that a mistake of fact does not make a seizure unconstitutional.

Reported harm

Melvin says he was held at gunpoint and detained kneeling for more than five minutes after a misread Flock alert and suffered trauma and emotional distress (his complaint as reported by the Herald and Military.com); the sheriff's office disputes that the stop was unlawful.

Outcome

Ongoing

Melvin sued the York County Sheriff's Office and three officers on 29 June 2026 in the York County Court of Common Pleas (case 2026CP4602329), alleging excessive force, false imprisonment and negligence; the defendants removed the case on 14 August 2026 to the US District Court for the District of South Carolina (Melvin v. York County Sheriff's Office, 0:26-cv-03474; docket). Military.com, citing the Herald, reports that the sheriff's office denies violating his rights and has asked the court to dismiss the case. A November 2024 internal-affairs review had found the deputy's actions reasonable.

What remains unknown

  • Whether Melvin was handcuffed as well as held kneeling (the Post and Courier and the Herald differ).
  • Whether the misread was caused by the tinted plate cover, the camera or both, and why the alert was not visually confirmed before the weapon was drawn.
  • The outcome of the dismissal request and of the suit.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. According to the filing reported by the Herald, the deputy acted on a Flock license-plate-reader alert for a stolen BMW; the camera misread the first letter of Melvin's plate, and the sheriff's internal-affairs report says the stop 'resulted from erroneous information associated with a Flock alert' (Post and Courier). The misread plate matched against a hotlist is the automated system's claim about his car. The sheriff's office attributes the misread to an illegal tinted plate cover; an internal email says the cameras had read his plate correctly 13 times that month. The decision to draw a weapon was the deputy's.

5 claims: 1 documented, 4 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported According to the lawsuit, on 14 February 2024 a York County deputy who had received a Flock license-plate-reader alert for a stolen dark-coloured BMW approached Melvin's black BMW with his gun drawn as Melvin pulled into his apartment complex near Lake Wylie, and made him kneel with his hands over his head for more than five minutes until deputies established that the car was not stolen.

Causal attribution. The plaintiff's lawsuit as reported; the Post and Courier says he was handcuffed, the Herald and Military.com describe him kneeling. The complaint itself was not read.

  • heraldonline.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'was stopped by a York County sheriff’s deputy on Feb. 14, 2024, while pulling into his apartment complex near Lake Wylie.'; 'received an alert from a Flock license plate reader that a stolen, dark-colored BMW sedan was traveling in the area, according to the filing.'; 'ordering him to kneel on the ground with his hands over his head for over five minutes, the filing said.'
  • military.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'approached Melvin with his firearm drawn and ordered him out of the car, according to the lawsuit.'; 'remained there for roughly five minutes while deputies checked his information.'
  • postandcourier.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'ordered him out of his car at gunpoint.'
Reported The Flock camera misread the first letter of Melvin's South Carolina plate; the sheriff's office blamed an illegal tinted plate cover and its internal-affairs report says the stop resulted from erroneous information associated with a Flock alert, while an internal email cited in the filing says the cameras had read his plate correctly 13 times that month.

Causal attribution. Filing and internal records as reported; the sheriff's office and the plaintiff disagree about why the plate was misread.

  • heraldonline.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'The Flock camera incorrectly identified the first letter of the license plate.'; 'tinted license plate cover was illegal, and obscured the camera, according to the filing.'; 'correctly identified Melvin’s plate 13 times that month prior to the traffic stop, according to the filing.'
  • postandcourier.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'The stop resulted from erroneous information associated with a Flock alert,'
Reported Melvin says he suffered trauma and emotional distress and feared he could be shot.

Causal attribution. Plaintiff's own account in the complaint.

Documented The defendants removed Melvin's suit from the York County Court of Common Pleas (case 2026CP4602329) to the US District Court for the District of South Carolina, where it is docketed as Melvin v. York County Sheriff's Office, 0:26-cv-03474.

Causal attribution. Docket entry.

  • courtlistener.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'NOTICE OF REMOVAL from York County Court of Common Pleas, case number 2026CP4602329.'; 'Melvin v. York County Sheriff's Office, 0:26-cv-03474'
Reported The sheriff's office denies violating Melvin's rights and has asked the federal court to dismiss the case; a November 2024 internal-affairs review found the deputy's actions reasonable.

Causal attribution. Defendants' position as reported; no dismissal motion appears among the docket entries read (through 8 September 2026).

  • military.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'The York County Sheriff’s Office denies violating Melvin’s rights and has asked a federal judge to dismiss the case.'
  • heraldonline.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'The sheriff’s office found in November 2024 that'; 'actions were “reasonable” after Melvin filed an internal affairs complaint against them.'

Sources

4 sources inspected, from 2 underlying accounts. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read on 2026-09-28 from the Internet Archive capture of 25 September 2026 (The Herald, Rock Hill, 9 July 2026); the live site timed out. Reports from the lawsuit and attached documents; includes a Flock statement. Applies to s1.

Read live on 2026-09-28 (Post and Courier, 19 August 2026). Draws on the lawsuit and quotes the internal-affairs report; does not name the plaintiff. Applies to s2.

Read live on 2026-09-28 (Military.com, 16 September 2026). Relays the lawsuit and the Herald's reporting on the dismissal request. Applies to s3.

Read live on 2026-09-28: CourtListener docket for Melvin v. York County Sheriff's Office, 0:26-cv-03474 (D.S.C.); entries through 8 September 2026. No filed documents were available to read. Applies to s4.

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

The stop took place at Melvin's apartment complex near Lake Wylie, York County, South Carolina (Herald); the suit was filed in the York County Court of Common Pleas and removed to the US District Court for the District of South Carolina (docket).

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-28: Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as a contextual case consistent with the existing Flock rows: an automated plate reader misread a man's plate and flagged his car as stolen, and deputies held him at gunpoint. The account rests on his lawsuit and the sheriff's own records as reported, with the federal docket confirming the case. He is named as the plaintiff in his own suit.

People described

Steven Melvin, 42, an Iraq War veteran living near Lake Wylie, York County, South Carolina (named as the plaintiff in his own lawsuit)

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

One person, Steven Melvin, detained at gunpoint (lawsuit via the Herald, Military.com, Post and Courier). Exact 1.

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#wrongful-stop#gunpoint#south-carolina#york-county#justice#lawsuit

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). York County, South Carolina: Iraq War veteran Steven Melvin says deputies held him at gunpoint and made him kneel for more than five minutes outside his Lake Wylie apartment complex in February 2024 after a Flock license-plate reader misread his plate and flagged his BMW as stolen; he sued in June 2026. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2024-york-county-sc-flock-alpr-misread-plate-gunpoint-stop-melvin-lawsuit

BibTeX

@misc{2024_york_county_sc_flock_alpr_misread_plate_gunpoint_stop_melvin_lawsuit,
  title = {York County, South Carolina: Iraq War veteran Steven Melvin says deputies held him at gunpoint and made him kneel for more than five minutes outside his Lake Wylie apartment complex in February 2024 after a Flock license-plate reader misread his plate and flagged his BMW as stolen; he sued in June 2026},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2024-york-county-sc-flock-alpr-misread-plate-gunpoint-stop-melvin-lawsuit}
}

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