Flock repeatedly flags 76-year old Grandmother for arrest, erroring zero for "O" (opens in new tab)

(guessingheadlights.com)

26 pointschasil6d ago3 comments

3 comments

source didn't read their own flippn article

Title

>Colorado Grandma Keeps Getting Pulled Over Because Police Cameras Cannot Tell the Difference Between a Zero and the Letter O

Article:

> The error exists in the database. The camera reads her plate correctly, matches it to the incorrect entry, and flags her as a suspect every single time.

crooked-v6d ago

Flock delenda est, but why are any states even using both 0 and O in license plates in the first place?

tzs6d ago

For normal plates this should not be a problem. Normal Colorado license plates have the format XXX-XNN where Xs are letters and Ns are digits. Someone getting 0 and O mixed up when entering a plate into a database should not cause false matches. It should only cause false mismatches.

I'd guess then that it must be vanity plates in these incidents. The state should fix that by not allowing a vanity plate to be issued that only differs from another vanity plate by 0/O changes. (Maybe also filter out 1/I changes).

kQq9oHeAz6wLLS6d ago

That's what I was thinking. You can see in one photo on the article that the O is squared off, and the zero is rounded, but it still seems ripe for confusion.

mordechai90006d ago

I believe, in my state, similar looking characters are considered identical for vanity plates. I assumed this applied to state issued plate IDs as well, but maybe not. It's hard enough trying to read a license plate on the road without throwing in confusion over B vs 8 and O vs 0.

spuz6d ago

Yeah this is a problem even without technology. I believe the UK does not use the letter O in standard registration numbers so it cannot be confused with 0.

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