{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-04T08:08:00.306Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"lawsuit-dismissed","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","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":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":"2023-jackson-township-ohio-flock-alpr-stale-hotlist-alert-traffic-stop-suit-dismissed","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'The missing juvenile was located at an area hospital on February 23, 2023'; 'captured Plaintiff’s vehicle’s license plate and matched it to information on the “Hot List.”'; 'The system issued a notification which prompted Jackson Township Police to initiate a traffic stop of Plaintiff’s'; 'The police briefly detained Plaintiff and allowed him to leave without further incident.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"A Flock license-plate camera matched the driver's plate to a hotlist entry from a Cleveland missing-juvenile investigation that had ended two weeks earlier; the alert prompted Jackson Township police to stop him, and they briefly detained him and let him go after confirming the juvenile had been found.","causal_attribution":"Facts recited by the court from the pleadings, the earlier township case and the attached police report, on a motion to dismiss where factual allegations are accepted as true; not findings of fact."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Cleveland Police Department entering Plaintiff’s license plate number and vehicle description on'; 'Defendant does not generate the information that triggers the alert'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The hotlist entry had been created by Cleveland police, who entered the driver's plate and vehicle description during the investigation.","causal_attribution":"Court's recital of the pleadings on a motion to dismiss; not a finding of fact."},{"id":"c3","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'The parties settled that case on November 8, 2023.'; 'Count Eight, Plaintiff asserts a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress'; 'Moreover, Defendant’s camera did not cause the injury of which Plaintiff complains.'; 'This action is dismissed pursuant to Federal Civil Procedure Rule 12(b)(6).'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"He settled a suit against the township and its officers on 8 November 2023 and then sued Flock, claiming among other things intentional infliction of emotional distress; the court dismissed the suit against Flock, holding that Flock's camera did not cause the injury he complained of.","causal_attribution":"Court record; the court rejected his causation theory against Flock."}],"effects":[{"label":"stopped and briefly detained by police after a license-plate camera matched his plate to a stale missing-juvenile hotlist entry","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-ohnd-5_23-cv-02198/pdf/USCOURTS-ohnd-5_23-cv-02198-0.pdf","kind":"court_opinion","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read live on 2026-10-04 via pdftotext (21-page Memorandum of Opinion and Order, Doc. 38, filed 15 April 2024). Its factual background is drawn from the pleadings and the earlier township case; findings on the claims are the court's.","independence_group":"ndoh-5-23-cv-02198-opinion"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["institutional_use"],"contexts":["justice"],"unknowns":["The date of the stop beyond 'two weeks' after 23 February 2023, and how long he was held.","The terms of the settlement with Jackson Township.","Whether he appealed."],"geography":{"basis":"Jackson Township police made the stop, documented in a Stark County police report, and the hotlist entry came from the Cleveland Police Department; both cases were heard in the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio (opinion).","court_countries":["US"],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as an institutional-use case: a federal court opinion records that a Flock license-plate camera matched a driver's plate to a stale hotlist entry and that police stopped and briefly detained him on the alert. The court dismissed his claims against Flock and held that its camera did not cause his injury; that finding is recorded. He is not named here.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-04"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The court opinion states that Flock's license-plate-recognition camera captured the driver's plate, matched it to the hotlist and issued a notification that prompted the stop. The match is the automated system's claim about his car. The hotlist entry was created by Cleveland police and was not removed after the juvenile was found, and the court held that Flock only transmitted observed information and did not cause his injury.","status":"supported"},"person_relations":["made_claim_about"]},"name":"Jackson Township, Ohio: police stopped and briefly detained a driver in March 2023 after a Flock license-plate camera matched his plate to a missing-juvenile hotlist entry left in place after the juvenile was found; he settled with the township, and a federal court dismissed his suit against Flock in April 2024","summary":"According to a federal court opinion of 15 April 2024, Cleveland police entered a driver's license plate and vehicle description on a hotlist during a February 2023 missing-juvenile investigation. The juvenile was found on 23 February 2023 and the investigation ended, but two weeks later a Flock Safety license-plate camera captured the driver's plate, matched it to the hotlist and alerted Jackson Township police, who stopped his car. The officers contacted Cleveland police, learned the juvenile had been found, and let him go; the police report shows him cleared by 5:18 a.m. He sued the township and four officers, settling in November 2023, and then sued Flock, alleging among other things defamation, product defects and emotional distress. Judge Benita Y. Pearson of the Northern District of Ohio dismissed the suit against Flock, finding that Flock did not detain him, that its system only matched plates against information entered by police, and that its camera did not cause the injury he complained of.","incidentDate":"2023-03-01","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"month","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2024-04-15","aiSystem":"Flock Safety license-plate-recognition camera system that captured the driver's plate, matched it against a police hotlist and sent an alert to Jackson Township police (court opinion)","aiProduct":"Flock Safety license plate readers","aiCompany":"Flock Safety","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["loss_of_liberty"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"He was stopped and briefly detained by police acting on a stale hotlist match from a Flock camera (court opinion). He claimed emotional distress and reputational and business damages; the court dismissed those claims against Flock.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"disputed","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":1,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person, the driver, stopped and briefly detained (court opinion). Exact 1.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"US-OH","platformType":"other","outcomeType":"lawsuit_dismissed","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-ohnd-5_23-cv-02198/pdf/USCOURTS-ohnd-5_23-cv-02198-0.pdf","primarySourceLabel":"US District Court, N.D. Ohio, case 5:23-cv-02198, Memorandum of Opinion and Order, 15 April 2024 (govinfo)","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-04T03:32:06.477716+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-04T03:32:06.477716+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["flock","alpr","license-plate-reader","stale-hotlist","wrongful-stop","ohio","jackson-township","justice","made-claim-about","lawsuit-dismissed"]}]}