AIPolicyTracker
Menu

AI incident ·

Flock Safety License-Plate Reader Reportedly Misread Plate, Leading Toledo, Ohio, Police to Stop Motorist at Gunpoint and Deploy K-9

5 news reports Synced from source · record last edited 30 Sep 2026

In brief

An AI system built by Surveillance technology developers, Flock Safety and 1 other and deployed by Toledo Police Department, Police departments in the United States and 2 others allegedly harmed Road users, Motorists and 4 others.

Risk domain
Not classified
Occurred
Coverage
5 reportsApr 2024 - Mar 2026

What happened

Toledo, Ohio, police stopped motorist Brandon Upchurch at gunpoint after a Flock Safety license-plate reader incorrectly matched his truck to a stolen plate. Officers released a K-9 that bit him and arrested him. Police later said the alert was a misread; one officer was reprimanded for failing to verify the plate, and all charges against Upchurch were later dropped.

Editor's notes

The incident ID date is 04/11/2024, the reported date of the traffic stop. On 04/15/2024, 13abc reported that a Flock camera generated the incorrect stolen-plate alert and published body-camera footage in which an officer described it as a misread. On 05/31/2024, Toledo Police said the K-9 deployment was within policy but reprimanded Officer Adrian Wilson for failing to verify the plate. All charges against Brandon Upchurch were dropped on 08/19/2024. Upchurch sued Toledo and Wilson on 04/09/2025; the city authorized a $35,000 settlement on 10/07/2025. The incident ID was created on 09/30/2026.

Laws that address this harm

No recorded instrument yet addresses this use case where it happened. See the open queue.

Matched from the record's risk domain and country to the instruments recorded here. A reviewer can correct the match in the repository (data/external/incident_overrides.yaml).

News reports (5)

Titles link to the original publisher; report text is not reproduced here.

  1. Body cam of TPD officers releasing K-9 on man during traffic stop
    13abc.com · Alexis Means
  2. Man speaks out after police release K-9 on him during traffic stop: 'Traumatized'
    abcnews.com · Meredith Deliso
  3. TPD investigation finds no wrongdoing in use of K-9 on man during traffic stop
    13abc.com · WTVG Staff
  4. Charges dropped against man Toledo Police released K-9 on during traffic stop, lawyer says
    13abc.com · WTVG Staff
  5. 'Flock Flocked up'
    businessinsider.com · Nicole Einbinder

Who was involved

Alleged harmed party
Road users Motorists Individuals mistakenly detained by law enforcement Epistemic integrity Drivers Brandon Upchurch

AI systems implicated

Surveillance technologyFlock Safety automated license plate reader systemAutomated license plate readers (ALPR)

Classification (MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy)

Risk domain
—
Risk subdomain
—
Causal entity
—
Intent
—
Timing
—
Harm level
—
Sectors
—
Countries
—

Linked by editors or by text similarity in the source dataset.

Source record: incident #1717 on the AI Incident Database · all 5 reports