Woman pulled over twice after Flock-linked software connected her to homicide
Woman pulled over twice after Flock-linked software connected her to homicide
因 Flock 软件关联凶杀案，女子一周内两次被警方拦截
Technology is supposed to make police work faster and safer. Most of the time it does. But every so often, a computer system hiccups, and an ordinary person ends up staring down the barrel of a gun for no reason at all. 科技本应让警务工作变得更快捷、更安全。大多数情况下确实如此。但偶尔，计算机系统会出现故障，导致普通人无缘无故地被枪口指着。
That is exactly what happened to Amber Newell of Brookfield, Wisconsin, not once, but twice in the span of a single week. Newell was driving on I-94 near Milwaukee last Thursday afternoon when a Flock camera, an automated system that scans license plates and checks them against police watch lists, flagged her car as connected to a homicide investigation. 这正是威斯康星州布鲁克菲尔德市的 Amber Newell 所经历的事情，而且在短短一周内发生了两次。上周四下午，Newell 正在密尔沃基附近的 94 号州际公路上行驶，当时一台 Flock 摄像头（一种扫描车牌并将其与警方监视名单进行比对的自动化系统）将她的车标记为与一起凶杀案有关。
Within moments, Brookfield officers had her vehicle surrounded, guns drawn, and a passenger’s hands out the window in plain view of passing traffic and plenty of cell phone cameras, reported Local 12. The problem is, Newell had nothing to do with any homicide. 据 Local 12 报道，片刻之间，布鲁克菲尔德的警察就包围了她的车辆，拔出枪支，并要求乘客将手伸出窗外，这一幕被过往车辆和许多手机摄像头清晰地记录了下来。问题在于，Newell 与任何凶杀案都毫无关系。
Milwaukee police later admitted the alert should have been cleared out of the system days earlier, but an employee simply forgot to remove it. That oversight meant Newell had already been through a nearly identical ordeal the previous Monday, guns drawn and all, before it happened to her again. 密尔沃基警方后来承认，该警报本应在几天前就从系统中清除，但一名员工忘记了删除。这一疏忽意味着，在再次发生此事之前，Newell 在上周一就已经经历过一次几乎完全相同的遭遇，同样是被警察持枪拦截。
Newell says the whole thing has left her rattled behind the wheel, and understandably so. Her young daughter has reportedly asked if the police are going to “get us” again every time they get in the car. That is a heavy thing for a kid to carry over what boils down to somebody forgetting to hit delete. Newell 表示，整件事让她在开车时感到心惊胆战，这完全可以理解。据报道，她年幼的女儿现在每次上车时都会问警察是否会再次“抓我们”。对于一个孩子来说，仅仅因为某人忘记点击删除键而承受这种心理负担，实在太沉重了。
Flock cameras work by reading plates and comparing them against active alerts uploaded by law enforcement. When a match pops up, especially one tied to a violent crime, officers are trained to treat it as urgent and approach with caution. That is a reasonable policy on paper. Flock 摄像头的工作原理是读取车牌并将其与执法部门上传的活动警报进行比对。当出现匹配结果时，特别是与暴力犯罪相关的结果，警察会接受培训，将其视为紧急情况并谨慎处理。从纸面上看，这是一项合理的政策。
The trouble is that the system is only as reliable as the humans updating it, and in this case, Milwaukee police confirmed the wanted vehicle alert simply was not taken down after detectives no longer needed the car or its occupants. 问题在于，系统的可靠性取决于更新它的人类。在本案中，密尔沃基警方证实，在侦探不再需要该车辆或其乘员后，该通缉车辆的警报根本没有被撤销。
Brookfield’s police chief has defended his officers, saying they responded appropriately given the information in front of them. That is fair. Nobody wants an officer to shrug off a homicide alert just in case it might be wrong. But it does raise the question of how many other outdated alerts might still be sitting in these systems right now, waiting to flag the wrong driver. 布鲁克菲尔德警察局长为他的警员进行了辩护，称他们根据当时掌握的信息做出了适当的反应。这很公平。没有人希望警察因为担心警报可能出错而对凶杀案警报置之不理。但这确实引发了一个问题：目前这些系统中还有多少过时的警报，正等着将错误的司机标记出来？
A tool built to keep communities safer only works if the people running it stay on top of the paperwork, and in this case, that basic step slipped through the cracks twice for the same family. Newell deserves an apology and some reassurance that her plate has finally been scrubbed from the system for good. 一个旨在保障社区安全的工具，只有在操作人员认真处理文书工作时才能发挥作用。而在本案中，这一基本步骤在同一个家庭身上两次被忽略。Newell 理应得到道歉，并获得确认，确保她的车牌最终已从系统中彻底清除。
As for the rest of us, it is a good reminder that these cameras are everywhere now, and a little more oversight would go a long way toward keeping innocent drivers out of the crosshairs. 对于我们其他人来说，这是一个很好的提醒：这些摄像头现在无处不在，加强监管将有助于避免无辜的司机成为被瞄准的目标。
Author: Olivia Richman 作者：Olivia Richman
Olivia Richman has been a journalist for 10 years, specializing in esports, games, cars, and all things tech. When she isn’t writing nerdy stuff, Olivia is taking her cars to the track, eating pho, and playing the Pokemon TCG. Olivia Richman 担任记者已有 10 年，专注于电子竞技、游戏、汽车和所有科技相关领域。在不写技术文章时，Olivia 会带着她的车去赛道驰骋、吃越南河粉，或者玩宝可梦集换式卡牌游戏。
Why is it that the police can get the felony stop done but cannot correct the clerical error that caused it? 为什么警察能够完成重罪拦截，却无法纠正导致拦截的文书错误呢？