Topline
A Detroit woman sued the city Thursday after being wrongfully arrested when she was mistakenly identified using AI facial recognition, a technology that has prompted debate about the inaccuracy and racism of the algorithm.
Key Facts
Porsha Woodruff, 32, filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Michigan, naming Detective LaShauntia Oliver as the official responsible for negligence in running the AI facial recognition.
Oliver used an eight-year-old photo of Woodruff that matched the face on the robbery videotape, despite having a more recent ID photo from her, according to the lawsuit—Oliver then showed that same picture in a lineup for the victim who also mistakenly identified her as the perpetrator.
The incident, which happened in February, while she was heavily pregnant, became public on Thursday following Woodruff’s filing.
The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office dropped the original robbery case on March 6 for “insufficient evidence,” according to the lawsuit.
The arrest of Woodruff, who is Black, highlights arguments about biased AI algorithms that are fueling discrimination in policing.
Crucial Quote
Detroit Police Chief James E. White said the allegations in the lawsuit were “very concerning.” “We are taking this matter very seriously, but we cannot comment further at this time due to the need for additional investigation,” he said in a statement to NBC.
Key Background
Woodruff was getting her two daughters ready for school when six police officers showed up at her door in her Detroit home last February. “I thought it was a joke, honestly,” she told the New York Times. “I thought it was a prank.” When she realized she was being detained, she told her children, ages 6 and 12, to get back into the house and tell her fiancé: “Mommy’s going to jail,” she said. She later learned that a police officer had used a 2015 picture of her, taken when she was stopped for driving without a license. As a result of that, police officers actually had a more recent photo of her current driving license that they didn’t use to contrast the result of AI facial recognition. After spending the day at the Detroit Detention Center, Woodruff went to a medical center where she was diagnosed with a low heart rate due to dehydration and she experienced early contractions from the stress of the incident.
Contra
U.S. lawmakers introduced the Facial Recognition Act of 2022 in September as a first attempt to regulate the transparency of the algorithm. This is not the first case of a flaw in AI facial recognition in policing. The Detroit Police Department in particular wrongfully arrested three Black men in 2019 and 2020, putting one of them in jail by mistake.
Further Reading
Eight Months Pregnant and Arrested After False Facial Recognition Match (New York Times)
Racism And AI: Here’s How It’s Been Criticized For Amplifying Bias (Forbes)
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