{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-04T10:48:59.539Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"san-diego","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"contextual","evidence":"","year":"2025","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-san-diego-flock-alpr-photo-hit-five-miles-away-carjacking-arrests-nearly-month-jail-charges-dropped","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'On Nov. 26, 2025, the afternoon before Thanksgiving, San Diego Police responded to an attempted carjacking call in the 2800 block of E Street.'; 'Officers, however, were unable to get a clear look at the Alfa Romeo’s license plate number.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"On 26 November 2025 San Diego police pursued a red Alfa Romeo after an attempted carjacking in Golden Hill but did not get a clear look at its license plate.","causal_attribution":"Police reports as described by Times of San Diego."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'just 23 seconds after San Police Officers in Golden Hill tried stopping the suspected carjacker, a Flock Automated License Plate Reader captured a photo of a red Alfa Romeo'; 'run by the private company Flock, and got a “hit,” substantiating the claim.'; 'recognized the vehicle in the image as the vehicle [we] were pursuing due to the red paint and black tinted windows.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"A Flock automated license plate reader five miles away in Old Town captured a photo of a red Alfa Romeo 23 seconds after officers in Golden Hill tried to stop the suspect car; police treated it as a hit, and a pursuing detective recognized the car in the image by its red paint and tinted windows.","causal_attribution":"Police reports as described by Times of San Diego; the men's attorney says the hit was the wrong car."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Officers went into the cigar lounge and arrested'; 'A police search of the car found no weapons.'; 'bailed out the following day.'; 'spent nearly one month behind bars, missing Thanksgiving and other special events with his family, before the assault with a firearm and evasion charges were dropped.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Officers arrested three men who had left that car at an Old Town cigar lounge; a search of the car found no weapons; the driver bailed out the next day, and the passenger spent nearly a month in jail, missing Thanksgiving, before the assault with a firearm and evasion charges were dropped.","causal_attribution":"Police reports and the men's accounts as reported by Times of San Diego. The carjacking victim's curbside identification of the passenger was also part of the case."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'This Flock hit was obviously the wrong car, as it could not have been in both places simultaneously'; 'argue that San Diego Police misread its own surveillance system and ignored exculpatory evidence in a rush to judgment.'; 'says the city has denied the men’s claims, meaning he will soon file a lawsuit on their behalf.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The men's attorney says the Flock hit was the wrong car because it was captured five miles from Golden Hill and before any pursuit began; their tort claims, filed in April 2026, say police misread their own surveillance system and ignored exculpatory evidence, and the attorney says the city denied the claims.","causal_attribution":"The men's attorney and their tort claims; these are allegations. San Diego police and the city attorney's office declined to comment on pending litigation."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Sitting in jail, I was full of fear and adrenaline because I was being charged with a violent crime.'; 'paranoid whenever a police officer or patrol vehicle comes into view.'; 'so his probation officer was notified of the arrest.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The passenger told Times of San Diego that he was full of fear in jail, and the newspaper reports that he still feels under suspicion and becomes paranoid when police come into view; his probation officer was notified of the arrest.","causal_attribution":"The passenger's own written account to Times of San Diego."}],"effects":[{"label":"three men arrested and one jailed for nearly a month after police treated a Flock reader photo of a red Alfa Romeo taken five miles from where officers had just tried to stop the car as a hit","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"},{"label":"continuing fear and sense of suspicion described by the passenger","claim_id":"c5","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://timesofsandiego.com/crime/2026/06/07/a-flock-license-plate-reader-linked-a-san-diego-man-to-a-violent-crime-he-was-five-miles-away/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-04 from an Internet Archive capture of 25 September 2026 (the live page returned 429). Rests on police reports and tort claims obtained by public-records request and on the two men's written answers.","independence_group":"times-of-san-diego-police-reports-tort-claims"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["institutional_use"],"contexts":["justice"],"unknowns":["How the Flock system produced the hit (plate read, vehicle-attribute search or a manual image review).","Whether a lawsuit has been filed and its outcome.","What happened to the third man after his arrest."],"geography":{"basis":"The carjacking attempt, the Flock photo and the arrests took place in San Diego, California, and the men were held at the city's Central Jail and charged there (Times of San Diego). The tort claims were filed against the City of San Diego.","court_countries":["US"],"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 Flock misread rows: Times of San Diego, from police reports and tort claims, reports that a Flock license-plate-reader photo of a red Alfa Romeo five miles from a carjacking scene was taken as a hit, that three men were arrested, and that one spent nearly a month in jail before charges were dropped. The men's claims that police misread the system are allegations. None of the men is named here.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-04"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"Times of San Diego reports, from police reports, that a Flock automated license plate reader in Old Town captured a photo of a red Alfa Romeo 23 seconds after officers five miles away tried to stop the suspect car, that police got a hit from the Flock system, and that a pursuing detective recognized the car in the image by its red paint and tinted windows. The reader's photo and hit were the system's claim about the men's car; the identification, the arrests and the charges were officers' and prosecutors' decisions. The source does not describe the reader as AI or say how the hit was generated.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["made_claim_about"]},"name":"San Diego: three men are arrested after police treat a Flock license-plate-reader photo of a red Alfa Romeo, taken five miles from where officers had just tried to stop the suspect car, as a hit; one spends nearly a month in jail before charges are dropped","summary":"Times of San Diego reported on 7 June 2026, from police reports and tort claims, that on 26 November 2025 San Diego police pursued a red Alfa Romeo after an attempted carjacking in Golden Hill but did not get its plate. A Flock automated license plate reader in Old Town, five miles away, captured a photo of a red Alfa Romeo 23 seconds after the stop attempt, and a pursuing detective recognized it by its red paint and tinted windows. Officers arrested three men leaving that car at an Old Town cigar lounge; the victim identified the passenger in a curbside lineup, and a search found no weapons. The driver bailed out the next day; the passenger spent nearly a month in jail, missing Thanksgiving, before the assault with a firearm and evasion charges were dropped. The two men's tort claims say police misread their own surveillance system; their attorney said the city had denied the claims and that a lawsuit would follow.","incidentDate":"2025-11-26","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2026-06-07","aiSystem":"Flock automated license plate reader in Old Town, San Diego, whose photo of a red Alfa Romeo was taken by police as a hit on the car they were pursuing (police reports and tort claims as reported by Times of San Diego)","aiProduct":"Flock Safety license plate readers","aiCompany":"Flock Safety","severity":"high","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["loss_of_liberty","psychological_distress","legal_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"According to Times of San Diego, three men were arrested after a Flock license-plate-reader photo of a red Alfa Romeo five miles from a carjacking scene was taken as a hit; the passenger spent nearly a month in jail before the charges were dropped and describes continuing fear and suspicion.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":3,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"Three men arrested at the cigar lounge (Times of San Diego). Two of them, the driver and the passenger, were taken to jail; the passenger was held nearly a month. Exact 3.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"US-CA","platformType":"other","outcomeType":"criminal_charges","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://timesofsandiego.com/crime/2026/06/07/a-flock-license-plate-reader-linked-a-san-diego-man-to-a-violent-crime-he-was-five-miles-away/","primarySourceLabel":"Times of San Diego, 7 June 2026: A Flock license plate reader linked a San Diego man to a violent crime. He was five miles away.","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-04T03:47:13.76454+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-04T03:47:13.76454+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["flock","alpr","license-plate-reader","alleged-false-match","arrest","charges-dropped","california","san-diego","made-claim-about"]}]}