Facial Recognition Software Accused of Police Misconduct as Black Woman Files Lawsuit
In the United States, yet another individual has come forward, alleging a wrongful arrest due to a false match by facial recognition software employed by law enforcement. This marks the sixth such case where facial recognition has led to the apprehension of the wrong person, with three of these incidents occurring in Detroit. Strikingly, all six individuals falsely identified by the technology are Black.
The latest lawsuit has been filed by Porcha Woodruff, a resident of Detroit who was eight months pregnant at the time of her arrest on charges of carjacking and robbery. According to reports from The Detroit News, the facial recognition system matched a photo of the suspect with an eight-year-old mugshot of Woodruff, despite the availability of her recent driver’s license photo, which could have been a more accurate representation.
The facial recognition software used by Detroit police is provided by Dataworks Plus and Rank One Computing, as the department extended its contract with them in 2020. Woodruff’s attorneys argue that crucial information about the age of the reference image used for the biometric match was not disclosed in the warrant for her arrest. They assert that if this information had been presented, the warrant might have been denied due to insufficient…
