{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-04T09:48:17.144Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"vanity-plate","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","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-morristown-tennessee-flock-alpr-stolen-alert-vanity-plate-grandparents-handcuffed-gunpoint","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"'both police officers had guns drawn on me as I was doing that,'; 'To be treated that way at gunpoint, handcuffed, humiliated,'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'Officers handcuffed them both, while'; 'After the couple was handcuffed, it was discovered that the vehicle identification number on the Expedition'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Morristown police stopped the couple, held them at gunpoint and handcuffed them both, while their 3-year-old granddaughter remained in the car.","causal_attribution":"The couple's account to WATE; police records reviewed by Business Insider record the handcuffing and the high-risk stop, and the department told WATE that high-risk protocol is common in felony investigations."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'The officers received a Flock alert that the plate was stolen.'; 'It had already been recovered, but it was never removed from the system.'; 'their license plate number was recorded as a zero, not the letter O.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'In Claiborne County, a Ford F-150 was reported stolen.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Officers received a Flock alert that the plate was stolen; the Flock summary recorded the couple's plate with a zero instead of the letter O, matching a stolen pickup that had already been recovered but was never removed from the system.","causal_attribution":"Business Insider from police records; WATE confirms the stolen pickup but does not mention Flock."},{"id":"c3","status":"disputed","evidence":[{"locator":"'However, using either character, the license plate shows as a stolen vehicle in the crime information database.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'officers used information from the National Crime Information Center (a state database, not the license plate reader database) as our protocol requires'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The police department says the officer ran the tag as displayed, with an O, and that with either character the plate shows as stolen in the crime information database; the chief says officers relied on the National Crime Information Center as protocol requires.","causal_attribution":"Police account; it disputes that the license-plate reader determined the stop, against Business Insider's account of the Flock alert."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'I really thought if I get shot today'; 'I had a laser beam on my chest at one point,'; 'so I was crying,'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The grandfather said he thought he might be shot and felt humiliated; the grandmother said she had a laser sight on her chest at one point and was crying as she heard her granddaughter calling for her.","causal_attribution":"Their own account to WATE."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'She has regressed to sleeping with her parents'; 'didn’t want to get in my vehicle'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The grandmother told WATE that since the stop the granddaughter has regressed to sleeping with her parents, keeps repeating 'baby in the car', and did not want to get into her vehicle.","causal_attribution":"The grandmother's account to WATE."}],"effects":[{"label":"both grandparents held at gunpoint and handcuffed while their 3-year-old granddaughter stayed in the car","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"},{"label":"grandfather feared being shot and felt humiliated; grandmother says she was crying","claim_id":"c4","direction":"negative"},{"label":"3-year-old granddaughter left alone in the car; her grandmother says she has since regressed and is afraid to get into the vehicle","claim_id":"c5","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.wate.com/news/top-stories/couple-handcuffed-in-morristown-due-to-license-plate-mix-up/","kind":"local_tv_news","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read on 2026-10-04 from the Internet Archive 2026 capture (WATE, June 2025; Google News dates it 11 June 2025); the live site returned HTTP 403. Interview with the couple and a police department statement; does not mention Flock.","independence_group":"wate-morristown-interview"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.businessinsider.com/flock-safety-alpr-cameras-misreads-2026-3","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read live on 2026-10-04 (Business Insider, 9 March 2026); full text present in the served page. Draws on police records including the Flock investigative summary, an interview and the police chief.","independence_group":"business-insider-records-review"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["institutional_use"],"contexts":["justice"],"unknowns":["The exact date of the stop; WATE says a Monday morning and Business Insider says June 2025.","Whether the Flock camera misread the letter O as a zero or matched a hotlist entry under a normalized character; Business Insider reports only that the summary recorded a zero.","Whether any complaint or claim was filed."],"geography":{"basis":"The stop was made by Morristown, Tennessee, police (WATE; Business Insider); the couple are described as earlier stopped in Bean Station and visited at home by officers, both in East Tennessee. No court proceeding is reported.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as an institutional-use case: WATE reports the couple's account of being held at gunpoint and handcuffed with their granddaughter in the car, and Business Insider reports from police records that a Flock alert flagged the plate and recorded it with a zero. The police say the stop rested on the crime information database; that dispute is recorded. None of the family is named here.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-04"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"Business Insider, citing police records, reports that officers received a Flock alert that the plate was stolen and that the Flock summary recorded the plate with a zero; the deputy chief's earlier email warned that Flock misreads plates. The police department says the officer confirmed the hit in the crime information database, where the plate shows as stolen with either character, and the chief says officers relied on that database. The stale stolen-vehicle record and the armed stop were human and institutional decisions; how far the reader's alert determined the stop is disputed.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["made_claim_about"]},"name":"Morristown, Tennessee: police held a grandmother and grandfather at gunpoint and handcuffed them in June 2025, with their 3-year-old granddaughter left in the car, after a Flock alert flagged the grandmother's vanity plate, which matched a recovered stolen pickup's plate spelled with a zero; police say the stop rested on the crime database","summary":"In June 2025 Morristown, Tennessee, police stopped a couple driving their 3-year-old granddaughter to a doctor's appointment, held them at gunpoint and handcuffed them both. The grandmother's personalized plate spelled a nickname with the letter O; a Ford F-150 reported stolen in Claiborne County carried the same word spelled with a zero. Business Insider reported in March 2026 that officers received a Flock alert that the plate was stolen, that the Flock investigative summary recorded the couple's plate with a zero, and that the stolen pickup had already been recovered but was never removed from the system. The police department told WATE that the officer ran the tag as displayed, with an O, and that with either character it showed as stolen in the crime information database; the police chief told Business Insider that officers relied on the National Crime Information Center as protocol requires. The grandfather told WATE that he thought he might be shot and felt humiliated, and the grandmother said she was crying as she heard her granddaughter calling for her.","incidentDate":"2025-06-01","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"month","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2025-06-11","aiSystem":"Flock Safety automated license-plate-reader camera system whose alert flagged the couple's plate as stolen and whose investigative summary recorded the plate with a zero for the letter O (Business Insider, citing police records)","aiProduct":"Flock Safety license plate readers","aiCompany":"Flock Safety","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["loss_of_liberty","psychological_distress"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"Both grandparents were held at gunpoint and handcuffed while their 3-year-old granddaughter stayed in the car; the grandfather said he feared being shot and felt humiliated, and the grandmother said she was crying (WATE; Business Insider). The grandmother says the granddaughter has since regressed to sleeping with her parents and did not want to get into her vehicle (WATE). Police dispute that the license-plate reader determined the stop.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"disputed","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":3,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"Three people: the grandparents, both held at gunpoint and handcuffed (WATE; Business Insider), and their 3-year-old granddaughter, left terrified and alone in the car (Business Insider), who the grandmother says has since regressed to sleeping with her parents and did not want to get into her vehicle (WATE). Exact 3.","victimAgeRange":"unknown","jurisdiction":"US-TN","platformType":"other","outcomeType":"media_coverage","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.wate.com/news/top-stories/couple-handcuffed-in-morristown-due-to-license-plate-mix-up/","primarySourceLabel":"WATE 6 On Your Side, June 2025: Couple handcuffed in Morristown due to license plate mix-up","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-04T03:32:02.866389+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-04T03:32:02.866389+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["flock","alpr","license-plate-reader","vanity-plate","stale-hotlist","wrongful-stop","gunpoint","tennessee","morristown","justice","made-claim-about"]}]}