Jul 28, 2023Single source
License-plate reader misread a digit, leading to a gunpoint stop of two sisters in Española, New Mexico
Rogue: Caused harmAI loose in the worldPhysical safetyDERIVED
Approved by person, Oct 11, 2026. How entries are approved
In July 2023, Española police stopped Jaclynn Gonzales and her 12-year-old sister after a Flock Safety plate reader reportedly read the last digit as 7 instead of 2, matching a stolen plate. Officers drew guns and handcuffed both before confirming the mismatch. The sisters sued; police said procedure was followed.
What this means for youAutomated cameras can misread a plate, and a wrong match can lead to a frightening police stop. Governments using these tools need a human check before officers act on a match.
Sources
- AI Incident Databasehttps://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/1698
Data from the AI Incident Database (incidentdatabase.ai), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. IAAI-21.
Source data license: CC BY-SA 4.0 (database). Report contents keep their own rights; reports.text, submissions, images and videos are excluded from the data license.
rogue:R4
Covered by snapshot 45
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