Woman awarded $35k after license plate reader mistake – she was wrongfully detained and left without her car for 3 weeks

A MUM has been wrongly detained after police linked her car to a crime using a licence plate reader.Isoke Robinson, 46, was awarded $35,000 after she was handcuffed outside her home in front of neighbours when Detroit police wrongly linked her white Dodge Charger to a drive-by shooting she had nothing to do with.Isoke Robinson, said she doubts the $35,000 pay out will change anythingShe was never charged, but still left without a car and without answers, for more than three weeks, relying on borrowed wheels just to keep her job on the assemble line at Stellantis.

Her two-year-old autistic son was also already briefly placed in the back of a police cruiser during the chaos.Police were investigating a non-fatal drive by shooting in 2023.But witnesses didn’t catch the plate number and not even part of it.



Instead of searching for the suspect’s plate, officers reportedly worked backwards.They looked at every licence plate that passed a specific camera near the scene and picked out vehicles matching a white Dodge Charger, one of them belonging to Robinson, who lived just blocks away.The actual plate reader used was two miles from the shooting scene.

Even though Robinson was never arrested or charged, police impounded her car.According to internal findings, the vehicle “was not released in a timely manner.”The delay left Robinson without her only transport.

She had to borrow a car for work and juggle care for her toddler son, who needs special support.Speaking through her lawyer, Paul Matouka, she said the experience left her shaken and humiliated.She added: “I don’t think the $35,000 will change anything within the DPD.

“I got the impression they saw this as part of the process, sometimes the wrong person gets caught up.”Detroit has over 100 high-speed cameras installed across the city to capture license plates — aimed at fighting crime. But critics say the system isn’t foolproof.

Gabrielle Dresner from the ACLU warned that Robinson’s case shows how these tools can backfire and disproportionately affect innocent people.Despite the payout, Detroit Police have not confirmed if they plan to change how they use the system moving forward.According to internal findings, the vehicle “was not released in a timely manner.