DINT #71 - Detroit to Re-vamp Its Facial Recognition Policies to Prevent Even More False Arrests
Plus: China boosts its stockpile of Nvidia chips prior to Biden's chip embargo.
News Briefs
Chinese Firms Put Down $5B to Stockpile Nvidia Chips Before Biden’s Ban Goes into Effect Next Year (The Financial Times / Demetri Sevastopulo)
Cali Gives the OK to Autonomous Vehicle Taxis (NPR / Dara Kerr)
With New Launch, AI Leader Anthropic Lowers the Bar for AI Adoption Among Enterprises – and Others (TechCrunch / Kyle Wiggers)
Consulting Firms Delay Hire Dates Into 2024, Giving New Hires Stipends to Remain Committed Until Then (Bloomberg / Aashan Shah and Francesca Maglione)
Fraudsters Find Fortunes in Fleecing Kenyans of Worldcoin Tokens (rest of world / Martin K.N Siele)
Friday Feature
This past week has been a tough one for the Detroit Police Department. It started when the New York Times published an article about an arrest Detroit police made in connection with a routine car theft investigation. As it turned out, the investigation wasn’t routine at all. Officers obtained a warrant to arrest a person their facial recognition system identified as the primary suspect in the case.
When officers went to the suspect’s home, they found a woman who was 8 months pregnant getting her two children ready for school and her fiancé prepping for work.
The officers arrested Porcha Woodruff, the accused, anyway. The charges were eventually dropped, because the witness refused to appear in court, say prosecutors. But Ms. Woodruff wouldn’t let this injustice go without holding someone accountable.
That someone is LaShauntia Oliver, the officer in charge of the investigation into a carjacking that took place at a BP gas station near Detroit’s “7 mile” neighborhood.
Related Coverage
Special Edition - Pregnant and in Jail: How Detroit Police Failed with Tech - Part I
Editor’s Note: You may have heard that a pregnant woman was arrested due to facial recognition. She’s now suing the city that falsely accused her. It makes splashy headlines but there’s an underlying current to this case that no other media organization seems to be covering. Come with me as I explore the racial and gender aspects of facial recognition a…
Oliver tracked down video footage of a suspect, fed the footage into the system’s facial recognition software which identified Ms. Woodruff as a likely suspect. Oliver showed the victim a photo lineup of six women and the victim selected Ms. Woodruff as the person who helped coordinate the carjacking on the actual perpetrator’s behalf.
It would later be discovered that Officer Oliver used an eight-year-old mugshot from an arrest in Woodruff’s past. The picture is grainy. Yet, a more recent photo of Ms. Woodruff was readily available, but Officer Oliver refused to show it in the photo lineup. The victim ID’d Ms. Woodruff as the carjacking accomplice and Officer Oliver obtained a warrant for her arrest.
When police knocked on her door early on January 29 of this year, they didn’t ask questions or try to seek out any clarity. They simply cuffed Ms. Woodruff in front of her children and neighbors.
On Wednesday, Detroit Police Chief James White announced the department has changed its facial recognition policy so that no one goes through what Ms. Woodruff went through earlier this year.
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