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In January, in the first known case of its kind, a man in Michigan was arrested for a crime he did not commit due to a flawed algorithmic facial recognition match. I told his story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/technology/facial-recognition-arrest.html
Robert Williams initially thought the call at work from the police, telling him to come in to be arrested, was a prank. But when he got home, he was handcuffed on his front lawn in front of his wife and two young, distraught daughters.
He was held overnight, had fingerprints, mugshot, DNA taken. During interrogation, detectives showed him a surveillance still of a shoplifter who stole 5 watches, asking if it was Robert. “No, this is not me,” he said, holding it to his face. “You think all Black men look alike?”
A recent federal study of facial recognition algorithms found them to be biased and wrongly identify people of color at higher rates than white people. The study included the two algorithms used to do the search that led to Robert Williams’s arrest.
The @ACLUofMichigan has filed a complaint in Mr. Williams’s case asking that his information be purged from the criminal system and that Detroit stop using facial recognition. https://www.aclu.org/letter/aclu-michigan-complaint-re-use-facial-recognition
“I strongly suspect this is not the first case to misidentify someone to arrest them for a crime they didn’t commit. This is just the first time we know about it.” — @ClareAngelyn who has done extensive research on the government’s use of face recognition https://www.flawedfacedata.com
There are other cases where it’s suspected this has happened but the defendants have been found guilty or have not been given access to the facial recognition evidence used against them because it’s only “an investigative lead.”
Some will point to this to say it’s happened before, but Steve Talley’s face match was done by humans not an algorithmic database. First people called a tip line to say he looked like the unknown bank robber & later a forensic examiner compared the faces. https://theintercept.com/2016/10/13/how-a-facial-recognition-mismatch-can-ruin-your-life/
I went deep on exactly how this investigation happened and why Mr. Williams spent the day before his 42nd birthday in a Detroit detention center. I hope you will read: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/technology/facial-recognition-arrest.html
The Prosecutor's office issued a statement in response to the story, apologizing and saying it would expunge Robert Williams's case and "have his fingerprints returned." Asking about DNA and mugshot...
