Documented Incident
Investigation finds 71% of Roseville, CA felony and stolen-vehicle Flock alerts were misreads
First reported: October 20, 2026 · 1 source
A published investigation, promoted via a LinkedIn post, reported that over a two-year period in Roseville, California, 71% of Flock Safety alerts for felony and stolen vehicles involved misread license plates — more than 1,000 incorrect plate numbers sent to the Roseville Police Department. Flock Safety markets its cameras as reading plate characters with over 96% accuracy in optimal conditions, and attributed the Roseville errors to obstructions such as trees and confusion between similar characters like E and F, adding that the city had requested an unusual camera configuration. The Roseville Police Department said officers are required to verify plates and that none of the errors led to traffic stops or arrests. The investigators said that elsewhere, camera errors or a lack of officer verification have placed innocent people at risk.
The gap between a vendor's stated accuracy rate and field performance in one jurisdiction bears on how much weight agencies and courts should give automated plate alerts, and on whether verification policies are documented and audited rather than assumed.
Key facts
- Flock Safety states its cameras read plate characters with over 96% accuracy in optimal conditions.
- The investigation reported 71% of felony and stolen-vehicle alerts in Roseville were misreads over two years, totaling more than 1,000 incorrect plate numbers.
- Flock cited obstructions such as trees, character confusion (E vs. F), and an unusual camera setup requested by Roseville.
- Roseville police said officer verification is required and that no errors resulted in stops or arrests.
- The underlying investigation's publisher and methodology are not identified in this secondary summary.
Sources
This summary was written from the published reporting below and links to it; BlockFlockNow does not reproduce article text.
- Flock Safety says its cameras can read license plate characters with over 96% accuracy … – LinkedIn (Social Network Release, October 20, 2026)
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About this record
BlockFlockNow documents reported incidents involving Flock Safety cameras and automated license plate readers: council votes, contract decisions, misuse by authorized users, lawsuits, audits, and community response. Every record is reviewed by a person before publication. New to the topic? Start with What is Flock?, find meetings near you, or learn how to request your town's camera records.
Updated October 23, 2026. Corrections: blockflock@bytebunny.io. See all documented incidents or search the full article archive.