San Diego Man Jailed for a Month After Police Misread Flock Camera Data That Placed Him Miles from Crime Scene

Hugo Parra was arrested last November in San Diego on felony charges stemming from an attempted carjacking at gunpoint, despite evidence that he was not present at the crime scene. Police relied on a Flock Safety license plate reader alert and a witness statement to justify the arrest, even though they lacked a partial plate number to confirm the vehicle involved. According to Parra's attorney, Alex Coolman, the Flock data used to support the arrest actually placed Parra five miles away from the crime at the time it occurred — information that should have been apparent from the timestamp. Parra was also wearing a white hoodie, not the gray hoodie described by witnesses, and was riding in a friend's car that only loosely matched the suspect vehicle description. Coolman argues that police could have used both the Flock data and Parra's cellphone location data to corroborate his innocence rather than proceed with the arrest. Parra spent approximately one month in jail before the situation was resolved. A lawsuit has since been filed against the San Diego police department over the incident.