Porcha Rudruff facial recognition wrongful arrest

The February 2023 identification using facial recognition and subsequent arrest of Detroit woman Porcha Rudruff for robbery and carjacking has resulted in an admission of wrongful arrest. It also led Rudruff, 32, to sue the city and the police detective handling her case. 

The suit claims Detroit police officer LaShauntia Oliver, who had been assigned to the case, used an eight-year-old picture of Woodruff in a line-up of potential suspects, despite having access to her current driver's license, and had failed to check the warrant to confirm whether the woman who committed the crime was pregnant.

Oliver also showed the carjacking victim a photo lineup that included the reference image of Woodruff that the software matched with a photo from a surveillance camera at the scene of the crime. 

The Detroit police later said they would strengthen its photo lineup and facial recognition technology policies by having two captains review requests for warrants when facial recognition algorithms are used in an investigation, and that a sequential double-blind line-up must be employed.

Rudruff's arrest is the third known wrongful arrest using facial recognition committed by the Detroit Police Department. In July 2019, Michael Oliver was arrested for allegedly snatching a mobile phone, and Robert Williams arrested in January 2020 for reputedly stealing five high-end watches.