- Police first blamed a surveillance camera glitch for the stop.
- The report shows the officer also blamed the plate border.
- The same report says the plate was visually confirmed first.
Last week, reports broke surrounding a family held at gunpoint by police in Arkansas. Police said they stopped the family because they believed the SUV was stolen. An automatic license plate reader (ALPR) alerted them to the vehicle, but there was a problem. The ALPR, owned and operated by Flock Safety, appears to have misread the plate, according to police accounts and the incident report.
Now, we have the official report, and it makes the situation look even worse. Carscoops obtained the officer’s incident report from the Sherwood Police Department. In it, Officer Kinkade, the man who pulled the couple over, details his account of how things went down. Here’s exactly what he writes.
More: Cops Draw Guns On Arkansas Family After ALPR Camera Flags Wrong Plate
“I received a License Plate Reader hit on a stolen license plate heading eastbound on Kiehl Road. The vehicle I observed in the hit was a black Chevrolet Tahoe. I confirmed the license plate view picture through the License Plate Reader and observed it as Arkansas APX55Y.”
That last little bit is key because it would appear as though Kinkade made a mistake here. As he would later admit, the actual plate number was APX55X. The report also indicates Kinkade attributed the issue to other factors.
As we noted in our original reporting, Kinkade openly told the detained couple that it was the ALPR system at fault. His report actually expands that blame and places it on the owner’s license plate frame.
“I observed a license plate border cover raised up and broken… I explained to Turbyfill that it was most likely the license plate border that obstructed the cover. I advised Turbyfill she needed to take the cover off.”
As you can see, in the report, Kinkade attributes the issue to both the camera system and the plate border rather than a misreading of the plate.
To add insult to injury, officers concluded the stop and left the scene without realizing they’d placed the owner’s keys on top of a cruiser only to drive off with them there. They later returned to find them for the couple.
No doubt, Kinkade didn’t intend for the stop to go the way it did, and thankfully, it didn’t escalate beyond pulling a gun on law-abiding citizens in front of their children. That said, it’s a good reminder that ALPR cameras, just like this one owned by Flock Safety, can and do make mistakes, and even police who are trying to do their best can compound those mistakes.