BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU AN AI CAMERA IN CALIFORNIA KEPT TELLING ARMED POLICE THAT A REGULAR GUY'S CAR WAS STOLEN. THIS HAPPENED SIX SEPARATE TIMES, AI COULDN'T FROM AN 8. ROSEVILLE NEAR SACRAMENTO. BUSINESSINSIDER.COM EXCLUSIVE In one California town, Flock misread license plates in 71% of the alerts it sent to police THE CAMERAS WERE By Nicole Einbinder + Follow Jul 31, 2026, 2:00 AM PT Read in app 9 min n the summer of 2024, a police officer in the Sacramento suburb of Roseville, California, called a man to discuss a persistent problem with his license plate. THE CAMERAS WERE MADE BY FLOCK, SCANNING COMPANY. Roseville Police Department, identifying his vehicle as stolen or used in a felony crime. Roseville police could see that Flock's software kept confusing the "9" on the man's license plate for an "8." The car owner said he would take off his license plate cover. Soon after, it happened again. BUSINESSINSIDER.COM HOME It's easier at this point we have it memorized," a dispatch supervisor in Roseville wrote in an email to a colleague. THIS MAN'S PLATE Flock's cameras capture license plate characters and vends char acteristics like color and model. Andri Tamburini for BI Flock says that in optimal conditions, its cameras accurately read more than 96% of license plate characters. Hundreds of pages of records from the Roseville Police Department show a different picture. In 2023 and 2024, Flock sent 1,427 alerts to HAD A 9 THE SOFTWARE KEPT BUSINESSINSIDER.COM HOME 2023 and 2024, Flock sent 1,427 alerts to Roseville police, flagging vehicles as stolen or used in a felony after they passed one of the city's Flock cameras. An analysis by the police department found that in 71% of those alerts, Flock's re-learning software incorrectly read the license plates. Business Insider filed public-records requests to obtain email correspondence, data, meeting notes, contracts, and other records that reveal the extensive back-and- forth between Roseville and Flock over repeated errors by Flock's system. The cameras regularly missed vehicles, captured blurry images, and misread license plate characters and states, and sent delayed alerts to police about vehicles possibly connected to crimes, the records show. Roseville - which, Flock noted, has an atypical setup for its cameras - has flagged problems to the startup dozens of times over the past four years. The department said it has reported issues to the company as recently as this year, and it continues to meet with Flock twice a month to provide updates and share concerns. AN 8. WHICH MATCHED A STOLEN CAR. HE FIGURED IT COVER, TOOK IT OFF, STILL ANYWAY. AND HERE'S THE NUMBER THAT GOT ROSEVILLE PULLED ITS OWN RECORDS. OUT OF ABOUT 14 OF THESE FELONY ALERTS, 71% WERE MISREADS. THAT MEANS THE ABOUT WHO'S A CRIMINAL MORE OFTEN THAN IT WAS RIGHT. COMPANIES LIKE THIS ARE THE EXACT MOTIVATION BEHIND THE PROJECT I'M BUILDING CALLED PARANOIA. IT SCORES EVERY COMPANY BASED OFF OF YOUR PRIVACY AND DATA THEY GIVE THE FINE PRINT YOU AGREE TO AND IT'S ALL BACKED UP WITH JUST ONE PLACE. LINK IN BIO YOU CAN CHECK MY BIO. BUT AS ALWAYS, THINK ABOUT IT. LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK AND FOLLOW ME.