GoKawiilRichmond Police Impound Wrong Car Using Flock Camera Data, Towing Firm Damages It
Richmond, Virginia police used vague Flock camera descriptions—make, model, color, approximate year—to identify Rosalyn Crump's 2012 Hyundai Elantra as connected to a shooting, despite lacking a license plate match. Officers impounded her car over her objections and despite body cam footage showing an officer doubting the match, and later identified a different vehicle as the actual suspect car. Crump wasn't told her car was released for four days, and only learned upon pickup that Seibert's Towing had torn off the front bumper during impoundment.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The case illustrates how police may lean on automated license-plate-reader systems like Flock even when the underlying match is weak, potentially overriding officers' own observations and a suspect's immediate denials. It raises questions, as critics quoted by Jalopnik suggest, about accountability when such tools lead to wrongful property seizure and subsequent damage, and about how affected individuals are compensated and informed.
- Police used only vague vehicle traits from Flock camera data, without a license plate match, to target Crump's car.
- Body cam footage shows an officer doubting the car matched the shooting scene, yet police proceeded with impoundment.
- Crump's car was damaged by the towing company and she wasn't informed of its release for four days.
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Published there as: “Bad Flock Info Leads Police To Tow Wrong Car, Then Towing Company Totals It”
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