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

WATE (Knoxville), June 2025: the couple were pulled over on a Monday morning on the way to a doctor's appointment with their 3-year-old granddaughter. The grandfather said officers screamed at him to get out, turn around and walk backwards, with both officers' guns drawn on him, and that he thought he might be shot; the grandmother said she had a laser sight on her chest at one point and was crying as she heard the child calling for her. The grandmother's Ford Expedition carried a vanity plate spelling the nickname her grandchildren use; a Ford F-150 reported stolen in Claiborne County had the same word with a zero instead of an O. She had been stopped once before in Bean Station and visited at home by officers about the stolen vehicle, and had been told the issue was resolved. The department said the officer ran the tag as displayed, with an O, that the stolen tag contained a zero, and that with either character the plate shows as stolen in the crime information database. Business Insider (9 March 2026) reports from police records that officers received a Flock alert that the plate was stolen, that the Flock investigative summary showed the couple's Expedition with the plate recorded with a zero, that the pickup had already been recovered but never removed from the system, and that both were handcuffed while the child stayed in the car; the officer confirmed the stolen-vehicle hit by running the tag before the stop, and the vehicle identification number showed the mismatch afterwards. Police Chief Roger Overholt said officers used the National Crime Information Center rather than the license-plate-reader database. Eight months earlier a deputy chief had written to officers that Flock information may not be accurate and must be verified.

Both grandparents were held at gunpoint and handcuffed while their 3-year-old granddaughter stayed in the car; the grandfather said he feared being shot and felt humiliated, and the grandmother said she was crying (WATE; Business Insider). The grandmother says the granddaughter has since regressed to sleeping with her parents and did not want to get into her vehicle (WATE). Police dispute that the license-plate reader determined the stop.

No lawsuit is reported. The Morristown Police Department said its records personnel would report the plate discrepancy to the state information system (WATE). The police chief told Business Insider that high-risk protocols are common in felony traffic stops, that officers' concerns were heightened because the grandmother did not comply with their instructions, and that officers used the crime database as protocol requires; a deputy chief had told officers eight months earlier to verify Flock information before initiating stops (Business Insider).