Full Breakdown
Wrongful Police Stop in Plymouth Traced to License-Plate Reader Data Error
7/14/2026, 4:40:42 AM
The Incident
At the end of June 2026, Plymouth, Minnesota officers stopped a man in a Kohl’s parking lot after Flock’s automated license-plate readers flagged his vehicle twice as stolen. Joel Feder, a journalist who reports on the automotive industry, was driving a Range Rover with New Jersey-issued plates reading “34 10 DTM.” Body-camera footage shows Feder exiting the car with his hands raised while an officer pats him down. The officer told him, “The reason you have four cops here is because your license plate is registered as stolen license plates in our system.”
How the Database Mistake Occurred
The Plymouth police chief later explained that the plate had been entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) after a theft report from California on June 24, 2026. The entry omitted the “10” segment, recording the plate as “34 DTM” instead of the correct “34 10 DTM.” Flock’s system, which partners with over 5,000 law-enforcement agencies across 49 states, relied on this incomplete NCIC record, causing the false stolen-plate alerts.
Official Statements & Responses
The police chief emphasized that the error was a data-entry issue rather than a malfunction of the reader hardware. A Flock spokesperson said the company “takes incidents like this seriously and is looking closely at what happened,” adding that “situations like this are rare. That said, an alert should be one part of an investigation, not the whole basis for a stop.”
Criticism and Calls for Safeguards
Feder, who first shared his experience on TheDrive.com, argued that the incident highlights a lack of procedural “guardrails.” He questioned, “What laws are in place? What guardrails are in place? How did this happen?” His remarks suggest broader concerns about over-reliance on automated alerts without corroborating investigation.
Verbatim Quotes
- “I saw two cop cars coming at the right side with the lights lit and sirens going,” — Joel Feder, Driver
- “The reason you have four cops here is because your license plate is registered as stolen license plates in our system,” — Plymouth officer (body-camera)
- “Officers ultimately discovered that when the license plate was reported as stolen in California on June 24, 2026, it was improperly entered in the National Crime Information Center database with incomplete numbers,” — Plymouth police chief
- “take incidents like this seriously and are looking closely at what happened,” — Flock spokesperson
- “Part of it is definitely the Flock cameras and the tracking technology, how the technology is being used. I think another part of it is the guardrails,” — Joel Feder, Commentator
