A technology journalist test-driving a Range Rover was surrounded by four police vehicles in a Minnesota parking lot after an automated license plate recognition system incorrectly flagged his vehicle as stolen due to a data entry error.
The Drive reports that Joel Feder, director of content and product at the popular outlet for automotive news, experienced firsthand the consequences of automated surveillance technology when a mistake in a police database led to his detention by Plymouth Police Department officers in late June. Feder and his wife were boxed in by police vehicles as they attempted to leave a Kohl’s parking lot, with officers emerging from their cars with hands on weapons and demanding compliance.
The incident began when Feder decided to take a Range Rover he was testing for review purposes to run errands with his wife. After completing their shopping and returning Amazon items, the couple had barely reversed out of their parking spot when four police cars surrounded them. Officers immediately began shouting commands, with Officer Max Ganshyn demanding to know if Feder was armed and ordering him to exit the vehicle.
During the tense confrontation that followed, Feder learned that Plymouth Police had been tracking his movements for several days using Flock license plate recognition cameras. The department believed he was driving a stolen vehicle and had been waiting for an opportune moment to apprehend him. When a Flock camera detected the Range Rover entering the Kohl’s parking lot that morning, officers set up their operation and waited for the couple to return to the vehicle.
The root cause of the misidentification was a data entry error made at a Jaguar Land Rover dealership in Los Angeles, located approximately 2,000 miles from the scene of the detention. The license plate in question was a New Jersey manufacturer plate reading 34 10 DTM, which Feder was legally using on the press vehicle loaned to him by the automaker.
According to the police explanation, the actual license plate reported as stolen from the Los Angeles dealer was 34 03 DTM, not 34 10 DTM. However, when the police report was filed and entered into the Flock system, only the larger characters were recorded as 34 DTM, omitting the smaller two-digit number that appears in a different font size on New Jersey manufacturer plates.
The Flock AI technology failed to register the non-standard smaller number when scanning license plates. As a result, any vehicle with a plate matching the pattern 34 DTM in large characters triggered an alert to local police departments, regardless of the actual middle digits.
Officer Ganshyn requested that Feder contact Range Rover to verify his story. Despite it being a Sunday, Feder managed to reach someone at Jaguar Land Rover, and the officer spoke with company representatives for approximately 10 minutes. The conversation confirmed Feder’s account and revealed the full extent of the problem.
The officer informed Feder that the issue was now nationwide in scope. Any police department with a Flock partnership would potentially flag other JLR-owned vehicles with similar New Jersey manufacturer plate structures. Officer Ganshyn noted that four other vehicles with the 34 DTM plate pattern were being tracked around Minnesota that same week, with Feder being the first to be detained.
The officer advised Feder to drive directly home, park the Range Rover, and leave it there to avoid being stopped again by a different jurisdiction. Officer Ganshyn added a sobering observation, stating, “You’re lucky we’re in Plymouth. If you were in Minneapolis, they definitely would’ve come at you with guns drawn.”
The police report obtained by Feder days later provided additional details about the original incident that triggered the alert. The document revealed that the license plate 34 03 DTM had not actually been stolen at all. According to the report, the plate had been misplaced during a photo shoot in Los Angeles, and the corporation reported it as lost to law enforcement. However, when filing the report, the plate was recorded as NJ 34DTM instead of the correct NJ 3403DTM.
The report also described how officers had conducted surveillance on Feder before initiating the stop. It stated, “I observed the driver, who was a white male wearing shorts and a green shirt, as he was putting something in the back seat of the car. I could also see a white female getting into the front passenger seat. When the driver started getting into the driver’s seat, officers initiated a box and pin on the vehicle.” The document also noted that both occupants were cooperative and exited the vehicle without issue. Feder later learned that police had even deployed a drone overhead during the operation.
Read more at the Drive here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.