A flock camera linked her to a crash that killed 3 people. She spent 13 days in jail despite being innocent

Lindsey Isaacs of Palm Coast, Fla., was 23 when police erroneously accused her of vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of a crash in 2025

NEED TO KNOW

Lindsey Isaacs was asleep at home in Palm Coast, Fla., on Oct. 5, 2025, when she was awakened at 4:45 a.m. by her father, who told her Florida Highway Patrol troopers were at the door.

Police accused the retail clerk, then 23, of causing a multi-vehicle crash on Interstate 4 that had killed three people the previous day and then fleeing the scene.

“They told me my vehicle had damage consistent with that collision,” she recalls. “I didn’t understand how they could even be pointing this on me when my vehicle is sitting in front of them in perfect condition.”

But investigators had misidentified Isaacs’s black Dodge Durango, flagged by a Flock camera about three miles west of the crash site, as the speeding vehicle seen by an eyewitness. Isaacs says she was driving home from a store that night after spending the day cooking with her mother.

“I had no idea there was a crash behind me,” she says, “but since I passed that camera during that time frame, those police officers then used that Flock technology to jail me.”

On April 17, 2026, Isaacs was arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of a crash involving death and was incarcerated for 13 days, including three days in solitary confinement because of the severity of the accusations before being transferred to a maximum-security housing unit.

“The whole time I didn’t think I was going to live,” she says. “I had multiple women coming up to me talking about my charges and telling me that they were going to knock my teeth down my throat or choke me while I slept.”

Isaacs was released on April 28 after her lawyer presented the court with photos of her undamaged SUV.

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On May 22 — the same day prosecutors decided not to file criminal charges — authorities arrested a woman who was driving a maroon Dodge Durango that night and charged her for causing the crash.

Isaacs sued two FHP officers for false arrest, wrongful imprisonment and malicious prosecution and won a settlement in 2026.

“I was facing life in prison,” she says. “It wasn’t anything small. My life was on the line.”

Controversial Cameras

Isaacs is just one of many citizens across the country dealing with issues related to Flock Safety cameras — the automated license plate readers attached to light poles, public buildings and highway overpasses — that have been adopted by law enforcement agencies in more than 5,000 communities in 49 states, according to the Atlanta-based corporation.

The cameras have become a source of growing concerns about invasion of privacy, misidentification and surveillance by public officials who use the technology illegally.

As police forces around the country cancel or decline to renew Flock contracts, and lawmakers debate new laws and regulations to prevent mistakes and unauthorized use, Flock is defending the cameras as valuable tools in public-safety efforts.

“In August, [we] announced additional safeguards specifically designed to detect and prevent misuse,” a Flock spokesperson told PEOPLE. “These incidents deserve scrutiny, but they should also be viewed alongside the much broader impact of the technology.”