Jackson Township Police in Stark County, Ohio Briefly Detained Driver After Flock Safety Alert Matched Vehicle to Stale Missing-Juvenile Hot-List Entry

Description

In March 2023, Jackson Township police in Ohio briefly detained driver Michael Smith after a Flock Safety license-plate reader matched his vehicle to an NCIC hot-list entry from a missing-juvenile investigation that Cleveland police had closed two weeks earlier. Officers released Smith after confirming the juvenile had already been found. A federal court later held that Flock matched the plate to law-enforcement data but did not create the stale entry.

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