License plate cameras can help police solve crimes but also lead innocent drivers to spend hours stranded on the roadside or days in jail.
Imagine being accused of a crime because a camera spotted your vehicle near the scene. The technology is accurate — your car was there — yet you did not commit the crime.
The police, however, are so confident in their technology that they treat your presence at the scene as evidence of guilt.
Isaacs reported she was asleep when troopers arrived at 4:45 a.m. and told her she had killed three people.
Chrisanna Elser does not have to imagine such accusations.
Elser was accused of stealing a package after doorbell footage captured a woman taking it from a home. Police searched Flock camera records for vehicles in the area around the time of the theft and identified Elser’s Rivian as the vehicle belonging to the suspect.
They had the wrong person. Elser drove through the area that day but was there for a noon appointment with her tailor, more than a quarter-mile from where the package was stolen. Her Rivian’s cameras showed her driving by without stopping.
