As part of a legal settlement, the Detroit Police Department agreed to new guardrails that limit how facial recognition technology is used.
These new policies prohibit police from arresting individuals based solely on the results of a facial recognition search or based on the results of photographs conducted immediately after a facial recognition search. He also states that photo composites cannot be made solely on the basis of facial recognition — instead, there must be additional evidence linking a suspect to the crime.
The policies — which can be enforced by a court for the next four years — also require police training on the risks and dangers of facial recognition technology and a review of all cases since 2017 where facial recognition was used to issue an arrest warrant .
Roger Williams, a black man who was arrested after being identified by facial recognition technology, had sued the police department and was represented by attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union and the University of Michigan Law School’s Civil Rights Initiative.
In announcing the settlement, the ACLU described it as achieving “the nation’s strongest police department policies and practices that limit the use of this dangerous technology by law enforcement.” He also noted that women and people of color are “substantially more likely to be misidentified by facial recognition technology.”
“As this painful chapter of our lives closes, my wife and I will continue to raise awareness about the dangers of this technology,” Williams said in a statement.
According to reports spent 30 hours in jail after he was mistakenly identified as a man caught on surveillance video stealing five watches from a downtown Detroit store. His driver’s license photo turned up in a facial recognition search of a photo and license photo database, and the security contractor who provided the video agreed it was a better match, leading to his arrest.
Prosecutors later dropped the charges. The police department said it is also paying Williams $300,000 as part of the settlement.
In a statement of its own, the police department said it was “pleased with its work with the ACLU and the University of Michigan over the past year and a half,” adding that it “strongly believes the new policy “will serve as a national best practice and model for other organizations using this technology.”
Cities including San Francisco have banned the use of facial recognition by law enforcement. Microsoft also recently banned police departments from using AI technology for facial recognition.
