{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-07T07:59:29.807Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"cline","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"contextual","evidence":"","year":"","response":"lawsuit","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":1,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":0,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":1,"regulatory":0,"minors":1,"coreRelations":0,"contextualRelations":1,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2020-aurora-colorado-license-plate-reader-alert-woman-four-children-gunpoint-stop-settlement","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'stopped the car, which they believed to be stolen, and ordered the four children'; 'Video shows the children screaming in fear as police handcuffed'; 'handcuffed two of the children'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'wrongfully forced out of their car on Aug. 2, 2020, in Aurora, Colo.'; 'everyone was ordered out and put on the ground'; 'Officers kept their guns drawn for about three-and-a-half minutes'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"On 2 August 2020 Aurora police officers stopped a car they believed to be stolen and ordered the woman driving it and four children to the ground at gunpoint. Two of the children were handcuffed.","causal_attribution":"The Denver Post from the prosecutors' letter and video; Sentinel Colorado from body camera video and the prosecutors' investigation. Kept as reported because both accounts draw on the prosecutors' investigation."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'A license plate reader installed at an Aurora intersection had alerted police to the car, a blue SUV, because it had the same license plate numbers as a stolen motorcycle from Montana.'; 'Police failed to double-check a reading from a license plate scanner before making the stop.'; 'Officers failed to check whether the SUV matched the physical description of the stolen vehicle.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'with Colorado license plates was stolen'; 'the vehicle that was actually stolen was a motorcycle with the same license plate number in Montana'","relation":"context","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"A license plate reader at an Aurora intersection alerted police to the car because its plate number matched that of a stolen motorcycle registered in Montana, and officers did not check the reading or the vehicle description before the stop.","causal_attribution":"The Denver Post's account in its report on the prosecutors' decision; the article does not attribute the reader sentences to the letter. Sentinel Colorado confirms the same-number mix-up and attributes the notification to the department's system without mentioning a reader."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'The two girls remained handcuffed for four minutes, even after dispatchers confirmed that'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'removed the girls’ handcuffs after about eight-and-a-half minutes'","relation":"context","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Two of the children remained handcuffed for four minutes after dispatchers confirmed the car was not stolen.","causal_attribution":"The prosecutors' letter as reported by The Denver Post. Sentinel Colorado gives the total time in handcuffs as about eight and a half minutes."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'will not face criminal charges, prosecutors announced Friday'; 'What happened to the innocent occupants is unacceptable and preventable'; 'All department officers are re-doing training regarding license plate scanners'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Prosecutors declined to charge the officers in January 2021, calling what happened unacceptable and preventable, and the department said all officers were repeating training on license plate scanners.","causal_attribution":"Prosecutors' decision and the department spokesperson as reported by The Denver Post."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'the City of Aurora has agreed to a $1.9 million settlement'; 'announced Monday, Feb. 5, 2024, that the family has reached a $1.9 million legal settlement with the city of Aurora'; 'In a written statement, the city confirmed a deal had been reached.'; 'The money will be evenly divided among'; 'was suspended for 160 hours'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The City of Aurora agreed to a $1.9 million settlement with the woman and the four children, announced by their lawyer on 5 February 2024 and confirmed by the city, to be divided evenly among the five. One of the two officers was suspended for 160 hours.","causal_attribution":"Settlement as announced by the lawyer for the woman and the children and confirmed by the city, reported by Sentinel Colorado. The agreement was not read."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Mentally, it destroyed me because I felt like not only am I not safe'; 'began acting out and became withdrawn'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The woman said the stop destroyed her mentally, and that one of the children began acting out and became withdrawn afterwards.","causal_attribution":"The woman's own account in an interview reported by Sentinel Colorado."}],"effects":[{"label":"a woman and four children ordered out of a car and onto the ground at gunpoint, two of the children handcuffed, after a license plate reader alert that officers did not verify","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.denverpost.com/2021/01/08/aurora-police-traffic-stop-no-charges/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read live in English on 2026-10-05 and re-read live on 2026-10-06 (The Denver Post, 8 January 2021). Rests on the 18th Judicial District prosecutors' decision letter, bystander video and the family's attorney.","independence_group":"denverpost-da-decision-letter"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://sentinelcolorado.com/metro/family-of-black-girls-handcuffed-by-aurora-police-held-at-gunpoint-reach-1-9-million-settlement/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-05 and 2026-10-06 from an Internet Archive capture. The live page returned HTTP 429 both days. Sentinel Colorado, February 2024, Associated Press copy (AP byline and photo credits on the page). Rests on the family lawyer's announcement, a written statement from the city, body camera video, the prosecutors' investigation and an interview with the driver. It says the department's system notified officers and does not mention a license plate reader.","independence_group":"ap-aurora-settlement-2024"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["institutional_use"],"contexts":["justice"],"unknowns":["The vendor and technology of the license plate reader.","Whether the reader's alert displayed the issuing state or vehicle type.","Whether the department changed its license plate reader procedures beyond the retraining it described."],"geography":{"basis":"The stop was made by Aurora police in a parking lot in Aurora, Colorado, and the lawsuit was settled by the City of Aurora (The Denver Post, Sentinel Colorado).","court_countries":["US"],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"The Denver Post, in its report on the prosecutors' decision, says a license plate reader alerted police to the SUV on a plate-number match with a stolen Montana motorcycle, and that officers did not verify the alert before ordering a woman and four children to the ground at gunpoint. Sentinel Colorado reports the department's system flagged the Colorado-plated SUV and reports the $1.9 million settlement with the city. The woman and the children are not named, and the reader's vendor is unidentified.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-06"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The Denver Post, in its report on the prosecutors' decision, says a license plate reader installed at an Aurora intersection alerted police to the SUV because it had the same plate number as a stolen motorcycle from Montana. Sentinel Colorado says the department's system flagged the SUV, which carried Colorado plates, as stolen. The reader's match on the plate number alone, ignoring the issuing state and the vehicle type, produced the stolen-vehicle alert on which officers made the gunpoint stop. Officers also did not double-check the reading or the vehicle description. No source names the reader's vendor or describes its technology.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["made_claim_about"]},"name":"Aurora, Colorado: police held a woman and four children at gunpoint in 2020 after a plate reader matched her SUV to a stolen motorcycle, The Denver Post reports","summary":"On 2 August 2020 Aurora police officers stopped an SUV they believed to be stolen, ordered the woman driving it and four children to lie on the ground at gunpoint, and handcuffed two of the children. The Denver Post reported that a license plate reader at an Aurora intersection had alerted police because the SUV had the same plate number as a stolen motorcycle from Montana, and that officers did not check the reading or the vehicle description. Prosecutors declined to charge the officers in January 2021 and called what happened unacceptable and preventable. The department said all officers were repeating training on license plate scanners. Sentinel Colorado reported that the department's system had flagged the SUV, which carried Colorado plates, and that the City of Aurora agreed in February 2024 to a $1.9 million settlement with the woman and the children to resolve a lawsuit over the officers' actions. One officer was suspended for 160 hours. The woman said the stop destroyed her mentally and that one of the children became withdrawn.","incidentDate":"2020-08-02","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2021-01-08","aiSystem":"A fixed license plate reader installed at an Aurora intersection that alerted police to the car on a plate-number match with a stolen Montana motorcycle (The Denver Post); vendor not named","aiProduct":"Unidentified license plate reader","aiCompany":"Unknown","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["loss_of_liberty","psychological_distress"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"A woman and four children were held on the ground at gunpoint and two of the children were handcuffed (The Denver Post from the prosecutors' letter). The woman told an interviewer that the stop destroyed her mentally and that one of the children became withdrawn (Sentinel Colorado).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"supported","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":5,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"Five people in the car, the woman driving and four children, all ordered to the ground (The Denver Post; Sentinel Colorado). Exact 5.","victimAgeRange":"minor","jurisdiction":"US-CO","platformType":"other","outcomeType":"lawsuit_settled","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.denverpost.com/2021/01/08/aurora-police-traffic-stop-no-charges/","primarySourceLabel":"The Denver Post, 8 January 2021: No charges for Aurora police officers who held children at gunpoint after erroneous traffic stop","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-05T03:12:34.885576+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-06T03:04:56.590358+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["alpr","license-plate-reader","hotlist-match","wrongful-stop","gunpoint","minors","colorado","aurora","justice","made-claim-about","settlement"]}]}