Their department did, maybe. Or the city/state. But reading the article, someone entered the plate wrong 1000s of miles away, and secondarily flock reads some plates wrongly.
However, the individual police were told "use this tool" and the tool said "spotted stolen car". They then showed up, and did their job.
I would blame the city or department head who signed with flock. I would blame flock. I wouldn't blame the individual officers which were just doing their job.
Instead they just blindly trusted Flock's identification of the vehicle.
The problem with giving a free pass to the lazy and incompetent cops who didn't do the least bit of due diligence before surrounding a couple with 4 cop cars in a manner that could have resulted in death, is that you can apply such flimsy excuses to everyone in the chain, and end up excusing everyone, because each link is only partly responsible.
Yes, I'd also blame the city for deploying constant warrantless surveillance.
Yes, I'd also blame Flock.
Yes, I'd also blame the Sergeants who set officer incentives and don't punish lazy cops, and prosecutors and judges who rarely hold police accountable.
But also blame the 4+ lazy and incompetent police officers, not one of whom bothered to double-check the pictures against the report and say, hey, this license plate has 7 digits...
Anyone who has the power to do violence to or imprison someone has a responsibility to get these things right.
To the outer colonies for this one.
That might make sense for speed traps or whatever, but how does brutalizing people with suspected stolen vehicles help "cops ... fund themselves"? Civil forfeiture doesn't even apply in this case because by definition that car has a rightful owner, so they won't even be able to keep it.