RICHMOND, Va. — A Richmond mother of three says her life has been upended after city police towed her car in the middle of the night based on a Flock Safety camera alert that wrongly linked her vehicle to a shooting — only for the car to be damaged in the process and later declared a total loss.
Rosalyn Crump was asleep at her Sussex Street home just before 2 a.m. on July 29 when someone alerted her that officers and a tow truck were outside. Body camera footage obtained by local investigators shows officers examining her 2012 Hyundai Elantra, which Flock cameras had flagged in connection with a shooting near Gilpin Court. Officers noted children’s car seats buckled in the back and one can be heard questioning whether they had the right vehicle.
Crump came outside and repeatedly told officers they had the wrong car. She said she had been at her mother’s house all day, returned home around 4 p.m., and waited for her kids to get off the school bus at 5. “Y’all got the wrong car,” she said. “This is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Nobody has driven my car today.”
An officer responded that her account did not match the Flock data and stated on camera that she was “definitely not telling the truth.” Minutes later, Seibert’s Towing hauled the car away.
Police later located the actual suspect and released Crump’s vehicle about four hours after the tow. She was not notified for roughly four days. When she retrieved the car, she discovered it had been damaged during transport. The towing company’s vice president acknowledged responsibility in writing, but the claim was later routed through insurance. An independent mechanic declared the vehicle a total loss.
Crump has since lost wages, faced job difficulties due to unreliable transportation, and has been paying for a rental car out of pocket to get herself and her three sons where they need to go. She has launched a GoFundMe seeking help with replacement transportation and related expenses.
Richmond police have acknowledged that Flock cameras pointed them to the wrong vehicle. In a statement, the department said it “understands that Ms. Crump did not ask to become part of this investigation, and the department recognizes the frustration of having a vehicle towed and subsequently damaged.”
The incident comes as Richmond moves away from Flock Safety’s automated license plate readers. Mayor Danny Avula announced in October that the city will not renew its contract when it expires in June 2027, following a similar decision by neighboring Henrico County. The city operates roughly 99 of the cameras, which police have credited with assisting in investigations ranging from stolen vehicles to homicides. Critics have raised privacy concerns and pointed to cases of data-sharing issues and mistaken alerts.
Police Chief Rick Edwards has previously defended the technology as an effective tool while the city holds community meetings on whether to pursue a different vendor for license plate readers going forward. Gunshot detection technology from Flock is expected to continue.
Crump’s case has drawn local attention as an example of the technology’s limitations and the real-world costs when an alert leads to action against an innocent person. The towing company has accepted fault for the damage; police have confirmed the misidentification. What remains unresolved is full compensation for a working mother left without a car and facing ongoing financial strain after an encounter that began with a camera alert at 2 a.m.
A note on comments: Our advertisers enforce a strict zero-tolerance policy on racism, hate speech, and threats of violence. Any comment that crosses that line will be removed and the account permanently banned — no warnings. Debate hard, but keep it civil.
A note on comments: Our advertisers enforce a strict zero-tolerance policy on racism, hate speech, and threats of violence. Any comment that crosses that line will be removed and the account permanently banned — no warnings. Debate hard, but keep it civil.