Man jailed for a month despite Flock showing he was 5 miles from crime scene

Parra, who was on probation at the time of the arrest, was “in disbelief” after cops decided to jail him. He spent nearly a month in jail, “full of fear and adrenaline because I was being charged with a violent crime,” he told the Times of San Diego. Now, he and his friend who owns the car that Flock flagged, Ariel Beltran, are getting ready to sue the city for negligence and civil rights violations. The Times of San Diego reviewed tort claims filed in April, which argued that “San Diego Police misread its own surveillance system and ignored exculpatory evidence in a rush to judgment.” As a penalty, the city owes the men $1.5 million each in damages, their filing alleged. Neither the police department nor the city will comment on the pending litigation, but Coolman told the Times of San Diego that “the city has denied the men’s claims,” so the lawsuit will proceed. Backlash against Flock is mounting, as the camera network has been used to surveil protesters, track abortion-seekers, and detain immigrants, digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation reported. Some local groups are also resisting FBI moves to get “near real time” access to Flock data. While the EFF warns the cameras are most often used for low-level investigations like noise complaints or employment background checks, communities across political divides have questioned whether the purported benefits of the cameras are worth sacrificing privacy and risking government surveillance. But San Diego has continued to embrace Flock. One month after Congress members called for probes into “inevitable” Flock abuse, the San Diego Police Department “looked to bolster its license plate reader program,” the Times of San Diego reported. On top of capturing audio and video, the cameras in the area could have begun collecting data from connected devices if the department signed a contract it was weighing in December. But the cops decided against using the new platform, Axios reported. Although some police departments may not be ready to pilot Flock’s data-integration platform, they likely have encountered earlier Flock messaging encouraging cops to turn to Flock for purposes beyond its license plate reader functionality. On Monday, the Raleigh News & Observer published a watchdog report warning “No plate? No problem” after obtaining a 2024 product presentation prepared for the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation’s license plate reader pilot program. In that presentation, cops were reminded that “cameras record data including a car’s make, decals, and body type,” as well as bumper stickers and other unique features that comprise a “Vehicle Fingerprint” that cops can supposedly rely on to track specific cars across the camera network. It’s touted as a way for law enforcement officials to get more information “even when you don’t have full plate information” and to “build stronger cases with less information upfront,” that report showed. Parra’s case in San Diego is a powerful example of what can go wrong when cops build supposedly strong cases using less information. Cops also could have checked other Flock cameras in the network to track Beltran’s car and verify Parra’s story. Coolman told the Times of San Diego that “mass surveillance without any sense of skepticism, or common sense, is a recipe for disaster.” “Law enforcement will come up with false positives all the time, the broader the surveillance net is cast,” Coolman said. San Diego counts among cities that remain invested in Flock, spending $2 million annually to maintain access. Around the US, some communities have won fights to end such contracts and defund Flock, however, a mayor of a New York city recently showed how far some local officials might be willing to go to block defunding efforts. In April, Carmella Mantello, the Republican mayor of Troy, New York, accused the Democrat-led city council of putting the city in “jeopardy” by working to halt Flock funding, The Washington Post reported. To keep Flock cameras running, she declared a state of emergency—which the Post noted is typically reserved for floods and blizzards. In response, the city council sued the mayor and, as the battle lines have been drawn, is considering passing a law to permanently limit Flock’s use in the area. Flock cameras are supposed to help catch violent criminals and exonerate the innocent. But for innocent people who get accused of crimes based on Flock data, the technology can create lasting harms. Parra and Beltran are both left in a particularly vulnerable position, the Times of San Diego emphasized, since they now anticipate their prior records will influence cops and courts reviewing Flock footage and perhaps make them more susceptible to wrongful arrests. Since his arrest, Parra told the Times of San Diego that he now gets “paranoid whenever a police officer or patrol vehicle comes into view.” “I remember all the horrible accusations being said by the [district attorney] and judge about me, and how I was a dangerous threat to the public,” Parra said. “I was able to experience being seen as guilty until proven innocent instead of the other way around.”