The Leitchfield Police Department has released bodycam footage and a statement regarding a traffic stop initiated by a Flock Safety Camera inaccurate license plate read.
The stop occurred on Wednesday afternoon at approximately 2:00 at 401 South Main Street. The female driver pulled into the parking lot of Twin Lakes Liquors after officers were alerted that a stolen vehicle was in Leitchfield, as police were sent, via Flock, photos of the vehicle and photos of the vehicle’s license plate.
Based on the bodycam footage (to see the bodycam footage, click the links below), the driver exited the vehicle and was told that her vehicle, a minivan, was listed as stolen. She was detained less than four minutes when officers were told by dispatch that the vehicle was not listed as stolen in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database.
Within seconds of discovering the system had made a mistake, the driver was uncuffed and released from the scene with multiple apologies from officers.
While being detained, the driver was overly cooperative, as her children slept in the minivan.
According to Flock, the license plate characters accuracy is 93 percent; the vehicle color accuracy is 95 percent; the vehicle make accuracy is 92 percent; and the vehicle type accuracy is 98 percent.
The Leitchfield Police Department released the following statement to K105:
On 5/28/2025, Leitchfield Police were alerted VIA Flock of a stolen vehicle entering the city on KY 259. The system alert sent photos of the vehicle and photos of the vehicles license plate to officers to locate the vehicle.
The vehicle was located within minutes and a traffic stop was conducted on South Main Street in Leitchfield. The secondary officer on scene ran the vehicle plate through dispatch and ultimately determined the vehicle was not actually entered into NCIC as stolen.
Based on training and supreme court case law, officers are warranted to conduct an investigative traffic stop and temporarily detain individuals for a reasonable amount of time for officers to conduct the investigation. Based on training, in a vehicle stop involving the felony theft of a motor vehicle, officers will conduct a “high-risk” or unknown risk stop in which the driver is ordered to exit the vehicle and the driver maybe handcuffed and momentarily detained.
That is exactly what was performed by the officer during this traffic stop. The driver of the vehicle was compliant in every way and officers immediately released the driver once the officer found that the alert was misread by the camera system.
Based on body camera footage it appears that no firearms were drawn on the individual, the driver exited the vehicle at the first initial request. Instead of clearing the vehicle as trained, officers learned that the vehicle contained two small children and officers checked on the children’s welfare multiple times, each time noting that the children were asleep and not in any extreme stress.
Upon clarification of the vehicle’s status, the initial officer immediately removed the handcuffs from the individual. Officers apologized and explained the situation as detailed as they could at the time.
Officers later were able to confirm that the vehicle stopped was the correct vehicle that they were alerted to, however the license plate reader misread one character of the license plate. We have reviewed our policy and have decided we will tighten our policy to prevent this situation in the future. We do not believe any officer’s actions were intended to cause unnecessary stress to any party involved.
Officers acted in good faith on the limited information available to them and investigated the situation further in accordance with their training and known case law. We recognize the possibility of human error and technological limitations. In addition to policy strengthening, officers were prescribed training by Flock prior to the introduction of the Flock Safety System.
LPD will be conducting further training to address potential limitations of the system and how officers can prevent these situations if possible.
The Leitchfield Police Department sincerely apologizes for the situation as it played out yesterday afternoon. We are in complete agreement that there is a change that can be made to better serve our community. We are saddened that this error has led to any unnecessary stress on the individual and/or her family. In the hope of transparency, we will be releasing body camera footage to the public and want to thoroughly ensure that changes that need to be made, are being made at this time.
Disclaimer on body camera footage: Body camera footage has been redacted to obscure the image of the citizen involved.
(Photo: Still photo of Leitchfield PD bodycam footage)
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
