People are missing the point. The police check number plates all the time and most of the time no one in those cars knows that it's happening, "Officers will often check cars"
The police officer entered the wrong number plate into the system and so a different car result came up. This did not match the description of the car DB was in. So the police stopped the car. It wasn't just about that it was from another area. It was also a completely different car. It (the other North Yorkshire car) could have been stolen or have cloned number plates or be a ringer or have a criminal history (the car or the owner/previous owner), be uninsured and so on, but apart from any of of that, the car simply did not match
From the police statement
"Criminals often use vehicles to travel in and to commit crime, therefore officers will often check cars to see if there is anything that requires them to stop it and do further checks."
"The officers ran a number plate check on the vehicle. At this stage, the officers still didn't know who the occupants of the car were, including their ethnicity because the car windows were tinted."
"A mistake was made, however, when an officer incorrectly entered the car's registration into his computer, Sir Steve said, adding that was when the Police National Computer returned details of a car from another region of the UK"
As a result, he said, the officers had decided to conduct further checks by stopping the vehicle and engaging with its occupants.
He said: "I expect officers to have professional curiosity and I would have done the same."
"Having viewed video footage Sir Steve said the officers "acted professionally and politely, explaining why the stop was made and, when realising there was a mistake, explaining this and continuing to answer the occupants' questions".