- An Arkansas family was stopped at gunpoint over a plate error.
- Police say an automated plate reader triggered the stop.
- The mistake was cleared on scene after both adults were cuffed.
Getting handcuffed in front of one’s own children is something no parent wants. Even worse, though, is a situation where those handcuffs go on because a camera got a plate number wrong and an officer on scene didn’t notice the difference before it was too late.
That’s exactly what happened to one couple in Arkansas after police pulled them over and ordered them out of the car at gunpoint.
A Camera Flag Triggers A Stop
The stop happened on February 11, 2026, not far from a pair of Flock Safety automatic license plate reading cameras. Officer Seth Kinkade of the Sherwood Police Department made the initial stop, and things got serious quickly. With his gun drawn, he orders the driver out of the vehicle. The driver complies calmly, and, to Officer Kinkade’s credit, the situation doesn’t escalate at the moment aside from placing the driver in handcuffs.
More: Flock Traffic Cameras Track Everything, Except The Cops Misusing Them
Moments later, Officer Joe Lackey arrives on scene, brandishes his firearm, and removes the driver’s female partner from the vehicle at gunpoint. Officers handcuff the woman in front of the kids present in the car and then begin to sort out what happened. As they’re walking to the back of the car, a dispatcher comes on over the radio to say that the plate in question is “52.”
That code essentially tells Sherwood police that the plate is negative for any reports in the National Crime Information Center. No reports of the plate or vehicle being stolen showed up. One officer is visibly surprised by this information. Officer Kinkade calls back to ask, “Are you sure?”
Moments later, the picture becomes a lot clearer. “Can you see that plate?” he asks the driver he detained in the back of his car. “It says APX 55X. So APX 55Y is the one that’s stolen… You flagged one of our cameras, so that’s why we stopped you, because we thought you were the other plate.”
It’s unclear how the officers didn’t notice the discrepancy before pulling over the SUV, so we’ve reached out to the department in hope that it can clarify the situation. Regardless, at this stage, the officer released both adults and sent them on their way without further incident. The entire situation highlights a broader problem, though.
Technology Versus Judgment In Real Time
Examples like this show how problematic ALPR cameras can be. The camera itself allegedly flagged this vehicle and its plate alerting officers. That’s clearly a failure of the technology, but on top of that, we see how the human factor also plays a role. No doubt, ALPRs have made mistakes in the past, and real humans have figured that out before pulling over the wrong person.
That didn’t happen here, though, and it’s tough to know how big an impact this might have made on the kids sitting idly by while their parents are detained. This is far from the first example of this type of mix-up.
How Often Do These Errors Repeat?
Last year, police showed up at the door of a Rivian owner and accused her of stealing packages from another person’s porch. “We have cameras in that town, and you can’t get a breath of fresh air without us knowing,” an officer said to the woman in question.
In short, the cameras get it wrong, and they’ll continue to, no matter how good the technology gets, because it’s an imperfect system. What’s worse is that cases like the ones we’ve highlighted, not even humans employed to detect and mitigate these failures, have been able to keep them from affecting the general public.