Milwaukee police admit data error led to two gunpoint stops of same woman over Flock camera alert

A Wisconsin woman was pulled over at gunpoint twice within 10 days after a Milwaukee police detective failed to remove a homicide-related alert tied to her car from a national law enforcement database, leaving it visible to a Flock license-plate camera in a homicide investigation she had nothing to do with, according to police and the woman’s account.

Amber Newell, a Milwaukee woman, was driving on Interstate 94 in Brookfield on Aug. 6 when Brookfield police officers surrounded her vehicle with weapons drawn after a Flock camera flagged her car as connected to a Milwaukee homicide. Video from the scene, first reported by FOX6 Milwaukee, showed multiple officers with guns drawn and a passenger holding both hands out the window as instructed.

When Brookfield officers contacted Milwaukee police to confirm the alert, MPD told them the vehicle and its occupants were no longer wanted, and Ms. Newell and her passengers were released. Milwaukee police later said the mistake stemmed from a personnel failure rather than a flaw in the Flock system itself. According to WTMJ, the homicide-related alert had remained active in the National Crime Information Center from July 27 until Aug. 6; a Milwaukee detective was supposed to remove it after Ms. Newell’s vehicle was seized and processed following the first stop, but did not. The Flock camera did not generate the faulty information itself — it read Ms. Newell’s plate and surfaced the outdated NCIC entry still tied to it.

It was the second time in 10 days that Ms. Newell says she was stopped at gunpoint over the outdated alert. She told WTMJ that Milwaukee police had pulled her over under similar circumstances on July 27, towing her car for evidence processing and returning it days later still carrying evidence stickers and fingerprint dust.

“I haven’t been asleep since this has happened,” Ms. Newell said. “Every time I close my eyes, all I can see is guns.”

Brookfield Police Chief Christopher Garcia has defended his department’s response, saying officers acted consistently with the information they had at the time of the Aug. 6 stop. Milwaukee police have echoed that position, characterizing the error as a records-management lapse rather than a policing failure.

Ms. Newell said the encounters have taken a toll beyond the immediate fear of the stops themselves. She told reporters the ordeal cost her two jobs and left her afraid to drive, a fear she said has spread to her daughter as well.

The case has since drawn a legal response. Ms. Newell has retained civil rights attorney B’Ivory LaMarr, who confirmed to TMJ4 that his team plans to file a notice of claim against the city of Milwaukee this week in an effort to resolve the matter without a lawsuit. Mr. LaMarr said he is seeking accountability from the city and the police department, while stopping short of faulting Brookfield officers for their response to the flagged alert.

“We would hope the city of Milwaukee represents themselves with integrity and say, you know what, this was a mishap — we should take responsibility and make things right with Ms. Newell,” Mr. LaMarr said, according to the station.

The incident is the latest to draw scrutiny to Milwaukee police’s supervision of Flock Safety’s automated license-plate-reader network. Separate cases reported by WTMJ show two MPD personnel have faced criminal charges over alleged Flock misuse this year: former officer Josue Ayala, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to probation after prosecutors said he used the system more than 170 times to track a former partner, and Detective Tehrangi Chapman, who pleaded not guilty in August to charges alleging he ran unauthorized searches on people outside any criminal investigation. Milwaukee police have maintained that Ms. Newell’s case does not reflect a flaw in Flock’s technology, but rather a failure to follow internal procedures for clearing outdated alerts.

Neither Ms. Newell nor her attorney has filed a lawsuit as of this writing.