ACLU files facial recognition complaint against Detroit Police Department
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed an administrative complaint against the Detroit Police Department for a wrongful arrest involving facial recognition technology. The ACLU terms the arrest of Robert Williams, a black man, in January, as the US’ ‘first known wrongful arrest involving facial-recognition technology’. Williams was arrested and detained for over 30 hours after facial recognition software matched him with the video surveillance of a black man stealing watches. When police officers compared his face with the footage, they realised that he did not resemble the suspect in the video and released him. The complaint comes in the wake of campaigns to reform policing in the USA, calling for an end to the use of facial recognition software by the police.
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