Last November, Hugo Parra spent nearly a month in jail for a violent crime he didn't commit. The evidence that could have freed him immediately was sitting in the same database police used to arrest him.

San Diego police were searching for a red Alfa Romeo involved in an attempted carjacking at gunpoint. A Flock license plate camera flagged a similar-looking car — but the timestamp on that alert showed the vehicle was five miles away when the crime occurred. Instead of using that data to clear Parra, Detective Gary Gonzales noted the car's red paint and tinted windows, decided it matched, and pushed forward with the arrest. A witness then identified Parra based on his jacket, beard, and skin color.

Parra, who was on probation, was booked on felony charges. He spent 28 days in jail, he says, "full of fear and adrenaline because I was being charged with a violent crime."

The Flock alert was logged 23 seconds after police had already tried and failed to stop the actual suspect — in a different location. The math made the arrest impossible to justify. Police didn't check other nearby Flock cameras that could have confirmed Parra's location. They didn't use his cellphone data. They had everything they needed to walk away, and they didn't.

Parra and his friend Ariel Beltran, whose car was flagged, are now suing the city for $1.5 million each. San Diego has denied their claims.

Sign this petition to demand that San Diego Police publicly acknowledge the failures in Hugo Parra's arrest, discipline Detective Gonzales, and require mandatory corroborating evidence before any Flock alert can be used to detain someone.

Surveillance technology is only as just as the people using it. In this case, it failed completely — and a man paid for it with a month of his life.