{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-05T06:39:21.675Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"mistaken-identity","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":"2021-charlotte-north-carolina-license-plate-reader-hit-teacher-handcuffed-mistaken-identity-settlement","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"'handcuffed and hyperventilating on the street'; 'said she was in custody for less than 15 minutes that day in June 2021'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'More than a year after a Charlotte teacher was wrongfully detained after a case of mistaken identity'; 'In June 2021, teacher'; 'was released from custody within 15 minutes of being handcuffed'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'in favor of a Charlotte school teacher whom Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers handcuffed after they misidentified her as a suspect of a violent crime'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"In June 2021 Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers handcuffed a school teacher they had mistaken for a suspect in a violent crime, and released her within about 15 minutes.","causal_attribution":"The teacher's account to The News & Observer, the police account reported by WBTV and WFAE's own reporting each carry the handcuffing and the mistaken identity; the month and year and the length of custody are in The News & Observer and WBTV."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'As officers continued to investigate the attempted murder, they entered a vehicle registered to'; 'into the license plate reader system and received a hit that matched'; 'a license plate reader operated by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department picked up'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'They put her name into a system that scans license plates and that’s how they found'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'name into the License Plate Reader system'","relation":"context","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"According to a police statement quoted by The News & Observer, officers investigating an attempted murder entered a vehicle registered to the teacher into the license plate reader system and received a hit. WBTV reported that officers put her name into a system that scans license plates and found her that way.","causal_attribution":"The department's statement of 15 September 2022 as quoted by The News & Observer, and WBTV's own account. The two differ on whether a vehicle or a name was entered."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Officers were looking for a woman involved in a stabbing, someone with the same last name as'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'as well as two others who failed to notice and correct the suspect’s name'","relation":"context","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Officers were looking for a woman involved in a stabbing who had the same last name as the teacher.","causal_attribution":"WBTV's account; The News & Observer reports the review board's finding about the suspect's name."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'At least 10 police cars responded'; 'parked in front of her grandmother’s house'; 'a CMPD officer approached with his gun drawn, shouting instructions to put her hands up'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"At least 10 police cars responded while the teacher sat parked outside her grandmother's house, and an officer approached with a gun drawn and shouted at her to put her hands up.","causal_attribution":"The News & Observer from body camera footage, neighbours and the teacher's interview."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'The Citizens Review Board voted 9-0 Wednesday night in favor of a Charlotte school teacher'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"'The chief “clearly erred” in that decision, the review board found.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'It found the CMPD officers involved should have been disciplined.'; 'CMPD said that won’t happen because the officers were following the law and the department’s policies'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The Citizens Review Board voted 9-0 in the teacher's favour in April 2022 and later found that the police chief clearly erred in not disciplining officers. The department said it would not discipline them.","causal_attribution":"WFAE for the April 2022 vote, The News & Observer for the board's finding, WBTV for the department's response."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'the department will only put a suspect’s name into the system, once they have positively I-D’d them'; 'They’ll also verify those entries every 12 hours, instead of 24.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'obtaining positive identification of the accused'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The department said it would enter a suspect's name in the reader system only after a positive identification, verify entries every 12 hours instead of 24 and review reader operators' training.","causal_attribution":"The department's response as reported by WBTV and The News & Observer."},{"id":"c7","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'an agreement obtained by The N&O through a public records request showed the city settled with'; 'over the case for $10,000 in July 2023'; 'Charlotte paid out for the mistake while admitting no wrongdoing'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"An agreement obtained by The News & Observer shows the city settled with the teacher over the case for $10,000 in July 2023, admitting no wrongdoing.","causal_attribution":"The settlement agreement as reported by The News & Observer; the agreement was not read, and the body does not say a lawsuit was filed."},{"id":"c8","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'previously said she prayed for her life during the incident'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"'It was the worst day of my life.'; 'her arrest in 2021 was part of her motivation'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The teacher said she prayed for her life during the incident and called it the worst day of her life. She later said the 2021 arrest was part of her motivation for leaving the United States to work abroad.","causal_attribution":"The teacher's own accounts to WFAE and The News & Observer."}],"effects":[{"label":"handcuffed by police who had mistaken her for a suspect in a violent crime, after a license plate reader hit on her car","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article287381160.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-05 from an Internet Archive capture; the live page gave no response. The News & Observer, first published 2 May 2024, updated 8 January 2025. For this case it rests on the newspaper's interview with the teacher, body camera footage, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department statement dated 15 September 2022, the Citizens Review Board's findings and a settlement agreement obtained by public records request. The same article describes a separate Fayetteville case.","independence_group":"newsobserver-nc-plate-reader-errors"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.wbtv.com/2022/10/11/cmpd-announces-policy-changes-response-teacher-being-wrongfully-handcuffed/","kind":"local_tv_news","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read live in English on 2026-10-05 (WBTV, 11 October 2022). Rests on the police department's written response to the Citizens Review Board's recommendations.","independence_group":"wbtv-cmpd-response-2022"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.wfae.org/charlotte-area/2022-04-06/board-rules-substantial-evidence-cmpd-erred-in-probe-of-officers-who-handcuffed-wrong-woman","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read live in English on 2026-10-05 (WFAE public radio, 6 April 2022). Rests on WFAE's own reporting at the Citizens Review Board hearing and its earlier interviews with the teacher and the police chief.","independence_group":"wfae-review-board-hearing-2022"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["institutional_use"],"contexts":["justice"],"unknowns":["The exact date of the stop in June 2021.","Whether officers entered her name or her vehicle in the reader system, and how the wrong person was selected.","Which reader recorded her car and whether it was an NDI Technologies camera.","Whether the evidentiary hearing announced in April 2022 produced further findings beyond those reported."],"geography":{"basis":"Charlotte-Mecklenburg police handcuffed a Charlotte school teacher on a street in Charlotte, North Carolina, outside her grandmother's house (The News & Observer, WBTV, WFAE).","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as an institutional-use case consistent with the held license-plate-reader rows. Three outlets report that Charlotte-Mecklenburg police handcuffed a school teacher in June 2021 after mistaking her for a suspect, and the police department's own statement, quoted by The News & Observer, says officers entered a vehicle registered to her into the license plate reader system and received a hit. The reader's role is stated by the department; the error was the choice of person. The teacher is named by every outlet and is not named here.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-05"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"A Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department statement quoted by The News & Observer says officers entered a vehicle registered to the teacher into the license plate reader system and received a hit. WBTV reports in its own voice that officers put her name into a system that scans license plates and found her that way, and WFAE reports that the department was reviewing the entry of her name into the reader system. The News & Observer says Charlotte's readers are cameras from NDI Technologies. No body describes the readers' technology or says the reader misread the plate.","status":"supported"},"person_relations":["made_claim_about"]},"name":"Charlotte, North Carolina: police handcuffed a school teacher in June 2021 after mistaking her for a suspect with the same last name and locating her car through the license plate reader system; a review board faulted officers and the city settled for $10,000","summary":"The News & Observer, WBTV and WFAE reported that Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers handcuffed a school teacher in June 2021 after mistaking her for a suspect in a violent crime. According to a police statement quoted by The News & Observer, officers investigating an attempted murder entered a vehicle registered to the teacher into the license plate reader system and received a hit. WBTV reported that officers were looking for a woman with the same last name and put the teacher's name into the system. The News & Observer reported that a police license plate reader picked up her car at an intersection and at least 10 police cars responded as she sat parked outside her grandmother's house. An officer approached with a gun drawn, and she was handcuffed. She said officers questioned her in the back of a police cruiser. She was released within about 15 minutes. The Citizens Review Board found that the police chief erred in not disciplining officers. The department declined to discipline them and changed its rules for reader entries. The News & Observer reported that the city settled with her over the case for $10,000 in July 2023 while admitting no wrongdoing.","incidentDate":"2021-06-01","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"month","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2022-04-06","aiSystem":"License plate reader system operated by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, into which officers entered the teacher's vehicle (police statement quoted by The News & Observer) or name (WBTV); The News & Observer says Charlotte's readers are cameras from NDI Technologies","aiProduct":"NDI Technologies license plate readers (reported)","aiCompany":"NDI Technologies","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["loss_of_liberty","psychological_distress"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The teacher was approached by an officer with a gun drawn, handcuffed and held for less than 15 minutes (The News & Observer; WBTV). She told WFAE she prayed for her life and told The News & Observer it was the worst day of her life.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"supported","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":1,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person, the teacher who was handcuffed (The News & Observer; WBTV; WFAE). Exact 1.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"US-NC","platformType":"other","outcomeType":"internal_action","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article287381160.html","primarySourceLabel":"The News & Observer, 2 May 2024: NC police errors with license plate cameras brought wrongful arrests, $70K to women","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-05T03:33:23.080443+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-05T03:33:23.080443+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["alpr","license-plate-reader","hotlist-match","mistaken-identity","wrongful-detention","gun-drawn","north-carolina","charlotte","justice","made-claim-about","settlement"]}]}