Bad Flock Info Leads Police To Tow Wrong Car, Then Towing Company Totals It

Police continue to blindly trust Flock cameras above and beyond the evidence in front of their own eyes. After incorrectly connecting Rosalyn Crump's car to a shooting that had occurred the previous day, police had her car towed and impounded as evidence, reports Moneywise. Within hours, they realized they had the wrong car. That doesn't magically reverse the damage the car suffered from being towed that led to it being declared totaled, leaving Crump without a car even though she did nothing wrong.

Of course, a Flock camera was involved. In this case, it appears that it was not the technology that made a mistake, but the people using it. According to WWBT 12 On Your Side, Richmond, Virginia, police didn't have a license plate number for the suspect's car, making it impossible to search Flock's records for that plate. Flock cameras collect more than just license plate information, so police searched for a make, model, color, and approximate model year.

Based on this extremely vague description, police zeroed in on Crump's 2012 Hyundai Elantra. Around 2 a.m. they started looking through the windows with flashlights to see what was in plain sight, which isn't technically a "search" — at least, not one that would require a warrant. Crump came outside to talk to police, who were absolutely certain her car was involved with the shooting. Body cam video obtained by 12 On Your Side shows her telling police:

This is the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life. ... I have had my car all day long. I was at my momma's house all day long. We came back here like 4 o'clock. I waited until my kids got off the bus at 5 o'clock.

Other body cam footage shows an officer expressing doubt that Crump's car is the right one, since child seats and other items inside seem inconsistent with a shooting. Another officer replies, "Don't be surprised if they would have set that up like that." Instead of believing the evidence, or Crump, or interviewing witnesses who could have corroborated her story, police called Seibert's Towing to impound the car.

Hours later, police identified a similar-looking car that seemed to be actually connected to the shooting, and released Crump's Elantra. Nobody actually told Crump this until four days later. Siebert's told Moneywise that police didn't actually release the car until then. Either way, they didn't tell her that Seibert's had ripped the front bumper off during the towing process — leaving the car undrivable — until she arrived to pick it up.

Seibert's took responsibility for causing the cosmetic damage, and was willing to cover the $2,212.30 bill to paint and replace the bumper cover, fog lights, and wheel liners. Then Crump asked for a full mechanical inspection, which revealed damaged tie rods and ball joints, jacking the bill beyond $6,000. Seibert's says it didn't cause this damage. Regardless of how it occurred, Siebert's insurer and Crump agree that her Hyundai is now a total loss due to the cost of the repairs it needs. It had been drivable, if mechanically worn, before police ordered it towed, damaging it for nothing more than a case of mistaken identity.

This is far from the first time we've seen police trusting Flock more than the evidence right in front of their eyes. In a similar situation in Lexington, Kentucky, heavily armed police surrounded a couple's home at 4 a.m. and questioned them about a road rage incident they had nothing to do with. The vehicle involved was a dark-colored Ram 2500, and theirs popped up on a Flock camera, with no evidence whatsoever linking it directly to the crime.

The couple, as well as their 94-year-old grandmother, suffered from rattled nerves, which is bad enough. Crump suffered the loss of her car, even though she'd done nothing wrong and even cooperated with police. She's had a hard time getting to work, and has lost one of her jobs. She managed to get a rental car, according to her GoFundMe, but is still looking for a replacement car, as well as "a safer, more stable home."

It's bad enough that a simple traffic stop can escalate into a life-changing (or ending) event, particularly for people of color. Now you don't even have to get pulled over for police to make your life a lot more difficult, regardless of whether you've done anything wrong. Just drive past a Flock camera at the wrong time, and it can be absolutely certain you're involved with a crime, at least until just a little basic police work proves otherwise. Maybe using MapQuest to avoid Flock cameras isn't such a paranoid idea after all.