{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-09-30T04:41:49.525Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"denver","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":1,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":0,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"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":"2025-denver-columbine-valley-police-flock-alpr-package-theft-summons-voided","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'On Sept. 27,'; 'The sergeant later revealed that Bow Mar’s cameras showed she was in town from “11:52 until 12:09 exactly,” which is apparently when the package — total value $25 — was stolen.'; 'The sergeant left her with a summons for petty theft, a December court date and a gnawing feeling in her gut.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'Footage from Flock surveillance cameras showing'; 'driving through the town from 11:52 a.m. to 12:09 p.m. on the day of the theft.'; 'before handing her the summons with a December court date.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'A Columbine Valley police officer who used surveillance from AI-powered license plate readers to wrongly accuse a Denver woman of stealing a $25 package will be disciplined, town officials said.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"}],"assertion":"On 27 September 2025 a Columbine Valley Police Department sergeant, who polices the neighbouring town of Bow Mar, came to a woman's home in south Denver, accused her of stealing a package worth about $25 from a Bow Mar doorstep on 22 September, citing Bow Mar's Flock camera records of her vehicle in town from 11:52 to 12:09, and issued her a petty-theft summons with a December court date.","causal_attribution":"The accusation rested on the Flock records placing her vehicle in Bow Mar, together with a doorbell video the sergeant said showed her; the decision to accuse her and issue a summons was the sergeant's."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'She asked several times to watch the video that Milliman insisted proved her guilt, but he refused to show her.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'If you're going to deny it, I'm not going to give you any courtesy.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'On her doorstep, the officer issued a summons, without ever looking at the surveillance video Elser had.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"The sergeant refused to show her the theft video he said proved her guilt and declined her offer of footage from her truck's cameras, telling her she could bring it to court.","causal_attribution":"Conduct of the officer, as recorded on her doorbell camera and described by her."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'She had, in fact, driven through Bow Mar on Sept. 22 — but only to visit her tailor for a 12 p.m. gown fitting ahead of a charity event, she said.'; 'Eventually, on Oct. 11, she sent all the evidence to the chief.'; 'we have voided the summons that was issued,'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'It was not until approximately two weeks later that exculpatory evidence was submitted to our department for review, and the decision was made to drop the charges.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"She had driven through Bow Mar on 22 September only to reach a tailor's appointment; over about two weeks she compiled her truck's camera footage and GPS records and the tailor's camera images, sent them to the police chief on 11 October, and on 15 October the chief wrote that the summons had been voided.","causal_attribution":"The town's statement confirms the charge was dropped after she submitted evidence; it maintains the officer had a reasonable belief when issuing the summons."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'This incident has caused me significant emotional distress, financial burden, and professional concern,'; 'since a theft allegation could damage or derail her career in financial services.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'I didn’t do a lot of sleeping the first couple of nights,'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"She says the accusation caused her emotional distress and sleeplessness and worried her because a theft allegation could damage her career in financial services.","causal_attribution":"Her own account of the effects of the accusation."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'We have decided that appropriate disciplinary action will be applied to the officer involved in this event.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"'But the town hasn’t apologized to'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"},{"locator":"'But the town did not reveal what discipline the officer faces'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"}],"assertion":"The Town of Columbine Valley said the officer would face appropriate disciplinary action without saying what it was, and had not apologised to her as of November 2025.","causal_attribution":"Institutional response to the accusation."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'it seemed that the sergeant had only connected her to the case because her vehicle was in the area.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'Data security analysts say there’s no indication the Flock technology malfunctioned in the'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s6"}],"assertion":"No source reports that the Flock cameras misread anything: her vehicle was in Bow Mar when recorded, and the error lay in linking that presence to the theft.","causal_attribution":"Context for the AI role: the automated records were accurate; the inference drawn from them was wrong."}],"effects":[{"label":"a woman was accused of package theft and issued a petty-theft summons based on Flock camera records of her car passing through town","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"},{"label":"she spent about two weeks assembling her own evidence before the summons was voided","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"},{"label":"she describes emotional distress, sleeplessness and fear for her career","claim_id":"c4","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://denverite.com/2025/10/27/bow-mar-flock-cameras-accusation/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Denverite, 27 October 2025 (Andrew Kenney), the first report. Full body read via the r.jina.ai relay on 2026-09-29 (direct curl 403 on the sibling Denverite URL). Denverite viewed her doorbell video and truck footage and the chief's email as provided by her.","independence_group":"accused-woman-account"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://coloradosun.com/2025/10/28/flock-camera-police-colorado-columbine-valley/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"The Colorado Sun, 28 October 2025. Direct curl 429; full body read from an Internet Archive capture (gzip-decoded) on 2026-09-29. Separate interview and viewing of the doorbell footage, but the account still rests on the accused woman and her recordings, so grouped with s1.","independence_group":"accused-woman-account"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/flock-cameras-lead-colorado-police-wrong-suspect/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"CBS News Colorado, updated 13 November 2025 (Karen Morfitt), read by curl on 2026-09-29 (HTTP 200). Carries the Town of Columbine Valley administrator's statement verbatim; the rest is her interview and doorbell footage.","independence_group":"accused-woman-account"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://denverite.com/2025/11/11/flock-package-theft-denver-surveillance-discipline/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Denverite, 11 November 2025, read via r.jina.ai on 2026-09-29 (direct curl 403). Quotes the town statement on discipline.","independence_group":"accused-woman-account"},{"id":"s5","url":"https://coloradosun.com/2025/11/11/columbine-valley-police-officer-flock-disciplinary-action/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"The Colorado Sun, 11 November 2025, read from an Internet Archive capture on 2026-09-29 (direct curl 429). Says the town did not reveal the discipline and public-records requests were unfulfilled.","independence_group":"accused-woman-account"},{"id":"s6","url":"https://moneywise.com/news/top-stories/flock-ai-cameras-denver-woman-false-accusation-package-theft","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Moneywise, 8 September 2026 (syndicated to Yahoo Finance, the queue lead), read via r.jina.ai on 2026-09-29 (direct 403). Retells the CBS Colorado report and adds commentators; derivative, used only for the no-malfunction observation. It misspells her surname once.","independence_group":"accused-woman-account"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["institutional_use"],"contexts":["justice","privacy"],"unknowns":["Which court the summons was returnable to, and whether any record of it remains.","What disciplinary action was taken against the officer.","Who took the package.","Whether she pursued the legal claim she said she was considering; no lawsuit was found on CourtListener or in news through September 2026."],"geography":{"basis":"The accusation was made at her home in south Denver and concerned a theft in Bow Mar, Colorado; the summons set a December court date, but the court is not named, so no court country is recorded.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a concrete case of a police accusation built on automated license-plate-reader records, with a documented adverse consequence (a petty-theft summons later voided). The account rests on the accused woman's interviews and recordings reported by three Colorado outlets, and on the town's statement. She is not named here.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-29"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The sergeant told her on her doorbell video, viewed by Denverite, the Colorado Sun and CBS Colorado, that Bow Mar's Flock cameras placed her vehicle in town during the theft window; the Colorado Sun describes the system as AI-powered license plate readers. The camera records were not reported as wrong. The town's statement does not mention Flock.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["made_claim_about"]},"name":"Denver, Colorado: a police sergeant cited Flock license-plate-camera records of a woman's truck passing through the town of Bow Mar to accuse her of stealing a $25 package and issued a petty-theft summons; she spent about two weeks proving she had only driven through, and the summons was voided","summary":"On 27 September 2025 a sergeant from the Columbine Valley Police Department, which polices the small town of Bow Mar, came to the south Denver home of a woman in her 40s who works in financial services and accused her of stealing a package worth about $25 from a Bow Mar doorstep on 22 September. He cited Bow Mar's Flock camera records showing her truck in town between 11:52 and 12:09, said he also had the victim's doorbell video, refused to show it to her, and issued a petty-theft summons with a December court date. She had driven through Bow Mar to a tailor's appointment. Over about two weeks she gathered her truck's camera footage and GPS records and the tailor's camera images and sent them to the police chief, who wrote on 15 October that the summons had been voided. She describes emotional distress and fear for her career. The town said the officer had a reasonable belief at the time but would face unspecified disciplinary action; it did not apologise. No source reports that the cameras misread anything.","incidentDate":"2025-09-27","incidentEndDate":"2025-10-15","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2025-10-27","aiSystem":"Flock Safety automated license-plate-reader cameras operated for the town of Bow Mar, Colorado (described by the Colorado Sun as AI-powered), whose records placed her vehicle in town during the theft window","aiProduct":"Flock Safety license plate readers","aiCompany":"Flock Safety","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["legal_harm","psychological_distress"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"She was accused of theft and issued a petty-theft summons on the strength of Flock camera records of her truck passing through town, spent about two weeks proving her whereabouts before it was voided, and describes emotional distress and fear for her career (her account and recordings, reported by Denverite, the Colorado Sun and CBS Colorado; the town confirms the charge was dropped).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"supported","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":1,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"The accused woman (1 other person). Her husband helped gather evidence but no harm to him is reported, so he is not counted.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"US-CO","platformType":"other","outcomeType":"internal_action","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://denverite.com/2025/10/27/bow-mar-flock-cameras-accusation/","primarySourceLabel":"Denverite, 27 October 2025: Police used Flock cameras to accuse a Denver woman of package theft. She had her own evidence","firstPublishedAt":"2026-09-29T09:04:11.701905+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T01:17:00.997394+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["flock","alpr","license-plate-reader","false-accusation","police","colorado","denver","justice"]}]}