For a brief time in 2021, the affluent town of San Marino in Los Angeles County saw a dramatic decrease in residential burglaries, its most common crime. Between January and May, they dropped 80%, down to seven from 32 in the same period of 2020.

For Flock Safety, which had installed AI-powered license plate readers for the San Marino Police Department in June 2020, the statistic was marketing gold. The company seized on this data, claiming its technology was key in decreasing not just burglaries, but all crimes in the town by 70%.

Taking a wider lens tells a different story. Despite that initial five month drop in 2021, residential burglaries on the whole rose after Flock’s cameras were deployed. In 2019, San Marino reported 60 residential burglaries. In 2023, three years after Flock’s arrival, there were 63 — a 5% increase.

Meanwhile, Part 1 crimes – more serious offenses including larceny and murder – have stayed almost completely flat: 231 in 2023, compared to 230 in 2019, the year before Flock cameras were installed. Even the town’s police chief John Incontro admits the 70% claim — still trumpeted on Flock’s website today — isn’t accurate. “I definitely need to talk to their marketing folks.”

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