DINT 115 - Detroit Police to Pay Local Father $300K for False Arrest via Facial Recognition
Six people have been arrested due to mistakes involving facial recognition. Three of those false arrests happened in Detroit. The city’s police department will also re-work its facial recognition use.
It’s widely known, studied, and documented that facial recognition systems don’t recognize Black people’s faces.
The Detroit Police Department still uses facial recognition to aid crime investigations. That’s how Robert Williams came to be arrested after he parked his car in his driveway in the Farmington Hills near Detroit.
Williams’ wife and two daughters watched as police handcuffed him and put him in a squad car. He was then arraigned on $1,000 bond and was placed in a holding cell for 30 hours.
Wayne County prosecutors refused to take up the case because of insufficient evidence. The Detroit Police Department then released Williams from police custody. His young daughters still remember the incident.
Williams sued the Detroit Police Department in federal court in 2021. Last week The U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Michigan filed a settlement agreement awarding Williams $300,000 in damages. The settlement agreement also mandates changes to the Detroit Police Department’s use of facial recognition technology, which the federal district court will monitor for compliance for the next four years.
Detroit will also have to review all facial recognition-related cases since 2017. If police arrested anyone without independent evidence, the police must notify a prosecutor. The prosecutor will review the case and could reduce charges or have the accused released.
Basically the federal government will be looking over the shoulders of Detroit police detectives and prosecutors for the next four years as it pursues cases involving any evidence culled from facial recognition.
Is it really worth it?
Can the technology actually aid in stopping false arrests?
Is there anywhere that facial recognition has been good for Black and Brown people or women?
So far, the answer to all three is no.
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