Cops Ticket Insured Driver For Having No Insurance Because Flock Said So

Supporters of Flock cameras and other automatic license plate readers often say that you have nothing to worry about if you've done nothing wrong. Yet a student in Georgia now has to fight a citation for not having insurance, despite presenting a valid insurance card when she was pulled over. It's all thanks to an ALPR alert on her new car, reports WSB-TV. 

The student has not been identified, but her mother, Renee Jones, says she had just gotten a new car and left for college, only to get pulled over in Atlanta. An ALPR had flagged her temporary license plate for an insurance issue. Temp plates have been abused so much that their mere existence may be a red flag to some officers, whether they deserve to be or not. Combine that with any Flock alert, and that's all the pretext for a stop that they need.

"Upon showing proof of insurance in this instance, she was still issued a ticket citation," Jones said in an interview with WSB-TV. She did everything she was supposed to do, including having insurance and presenting proof when requested. Apparently, even the proof that law enforcement requires isn't good enough when the computer says otherwise. This wasn't even a one-time fluke, either. The very next day, she got pulled over in nearby Cobb County for exactly the same reason. Now she has to go to court to prove her innocence, which her valid insurance card should have proven in the first place.

There are many problems here, but the root of them is that ALPR systems operate in real time. This is an advantage the companies that operate these systems cite when tracking dangerous criminals, stolen cars, or missing children. The issue is that less critical data, such as insurance databases, don't update as quickly, but drivers still have to exist in the here-and-now real world. The result is what we see here: a real-time alert based on information that hasn't caught up to reality yet. It's the same "garbage in, garbage out" problem we've seen before, where bad information put into the system causes problems in the real world. It also begs the question: why is the system hotlisting an administrative issue with the same priority as violent crimes?

The other issue is police believing this flawed computer system more than the proof right in front of their eyes. In most states, you're required to present proof of insurance to officers when they request it. Usually, this is a card that lists the owner, the policy number, the vehicle(s) insured including the VIN, and other information. It should have been all the officer needed to verify that the computer was wrong, that the vehicle is insured, and to send the driver on her way. If the proof of insurance required by law isn't good enough proof of insurance for law enforcement, then what is?