Severe harmFacial Recognition Wrongful ArrestJanuary 2020United States

Wrongful Arrest of Robert Williams (Detroit Facial Recognition)

Detroit Police used facial recognition on blurry 2018 surveillance footage of a watch theft, matching it against Williams's expired driver's license photo as the ninth-best candidate. Loss-prevention contractor not present at crime picked Williams from a photo lineup. He was arrested in front of wife and two daughters, detained 30 hours.

AI system:DataWorks Plus facial recognition

Impact

First publicly reported US wrongful arrest from facial recognition. Williams later suffered strokes and was diagnosed with PTSD.

Outcome

Landmark settlement: Detroit PD cannot arrest based solely on FR, cannot conduct lineups from FR leads alone, must be trained on racial bias in FR, must audit all cases since 2017 where FR was used to obtain warrants. Williams received undisclosed damages.

Sources

  1. Source 1ACLUwww.aclu.org/cases/williams-v-city-of-detroit-face-recognition-false-arrest
  2. Source 2Michigan Publicwww.michiganpublic.org/criminal-justice-legal-system/2024-06-28/it-didnt-make-sense-at-all-wrongful-facial-recognition-arrest-leads-to-landmark-settlement
  3. Source 3CBS Detroitwww.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/detroit-police-to-change-use-of-facial-recognition-technology-after-man-wrongfully-arrested/

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