A Federal Judge Said It Best: “Flock Flocked Up.” Now West Hollywood Has to Decide

A Business Insider investigation published Sunday found that Flock Safety license plate reader cameras have misread plates in at least a dozen cases across the country, resulting in innocent people being stopped at gunpoint, handcuffed, sent to jail, or attacked by police dogs.

The federal judge overseeing one of those cases put it plainly. “Flock flocked up,” the judge said during a settlement conference last fall, according to attorney Peter Pattakos.

West Hollywood has Flock license plate readers deployed citywide — all active, according to Lt. Ashley Turner of the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station. “All of the plate reader cameras are active,” Turner confirmed to WEHOonline on Tuesday morning. The exact number installed changes day to day, she said, as the rollout continues.

The City also has six Flock fixed security cameras now feeding a real-time watch center at the Sheriff’s Station — those do not read plates. Forty-eight more fixed cameras are ready to install. The City votes on the future of its Flock contract March 16.

In one of the cases detailed in the Business Insider report, a Toledo man named Brandon Upchurch was pulled over in April 2024 after a Flock camera misread the “7” on his license plate as a “2.” Officers drew guns. A police dog bit his arm and knocked his head into the ground. He was taken to a hospital and then to jail. The charges were later dismissed.

Upchurch settled a lawsuit in October for $35,000.

A Dozen Cases, Thousands of Cameras

Flock says it has contracts with more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies. A dozen documented misread incidents across all of them may seem like a small number. But Flock won’t disclose its actual misread rate, so no one outside the company knows whether twelve cases is the floor or just what made it into court records.

Flock told Business Insider it doesn’t publish a single accuracy figure because performance varies depending on plate design, lighting, and environmental factors. A company representative told a city council in Iowa last September that accuracy for license plate recognition was around 90 percent. A spokesperson later said the employee misspoke and that accuracy is “consistently in the high 90 percentiles range.”

In 2021, the research firm IPVM independently tested Flock cameras and found the system misidentified the state a license plate was from roughly one in ten reads. IPVM said Flock subsequently blocked it from purchasing cameras for additional testing.

Flock instructs all law enforcement users to manually verify alerts before acting. A spokesperson said “a human should always manually verify any ALPR hit.” In the Upchurch case, the officer received a verbal reprimand for failing to verify the plate before initiating the arrest.

West Hollywood’s Decision

West Hollywood has used Flock Safety cameras since 2023. The City expanded the contract in 2025 to add fixed real-time cameras and a mobile security trailer.

City Council voted 5-0 on February 2 to direct staff to review the Flock contract and return with recommendations within 30 days. That report comes back March 16. Terminating the agreement is on the table.

The February discussion focused primarily on immigration enforcement concerns, after reports surfaced that ICE had accessed Flock camera data through local police departments in other cities without a direct contract with Flock. Accuracy was not raised at that meeting.

Mayor John Heilman and Councilmember Lauren Meister have both pushed back against walking away from the technology entirely. Their argument: don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Residents want the cameras. The City has invested in them. The question isn’t whether to have them, it’s whether the right safeguards are in place.

The Business Insider findings put that question in sharper focus. What protocols does West Hollywood have to prevent a Flock misread from ending the way it did for Upchurch? The City’s contract with Flock requires officers to manually verify alerts before acting.

Heilman said at the February 19 meeting that the cameras are necessary public safety tools after a string of street crimes in the City.

“I don’t think it’s a waste of taxpayer money to install security cameras that will give the sheriffs additional tools to track down people who engage in criminal conduct in our city,” Heilman said. “We’ve had people being attacked on the street, people being held up on the street with guns.”

Public Safety Director Danny Rivas said removing all cameras would cost between $150,000 and $200,000 and take 45 to 60 days under the contract terms. Councilmember Lauren Meister asked at that meeting whether another vendor could provide the same service. Rivas said other vendors exist.

Captain Fanny Lapkin said at the February meeting that only she and Lt. Turner have administrator access to the City’s Flock system and that access is limited to station personnel.

March 16 is when West Hollywood decides.