Detroit adopts new rules for the use of facial recognition after settlement

The Detroit Police Department has agreed to new rules limiting how it can use facial recognition technology after a legal settlement was reached with Robert Williams, who was wrongfully arrested based on the technology in 2020. Williams was detained for over 30 hours after software identified him with video surveillance of another Black man stealing watches. With the support of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, he submitted a complaint in 2020 and then sued in 2021.

So far, Detroit police are responsible for three of the seven reported instances when the use of facial recognition has led to a wrongful arrest. Detroit’s police chief, James White, has blamed ‘human error’, and not the software, saying his officers relied too much on the technology.

What does this change concretely?

To combat human error, Detroit police officers will now be trained in the risks of facial recognition in policing. Another change states that suspects identified by the technology must be linked to the crime by other evidence before being used in photo lineups. Along with other policy changes, the police department will have to launch an audit into facial recognition searches since 2017, when it first started using the technology. 

In spite of this incident, police say facial recognition technology is too useful a tool to be abandoned entirely. According to the head of informatics with Detroit’s crime intelligence unit, Stephen Lamoreaux, the Police Department remains ‘very keen to use technology in a meaningful way for public safety.’
However, some cities like San Francisco have banned its use because of concerns about privacy and racial bias. Microsoft also said it would not be providing its facial recognition software to the US police until a national framework for the using facial recognition based on human rights is put in place.