Robert Williams facial recognition wrongful arrest

Occurred: January 2020

Robert Williams, 42, was misidentified by facial recognition technology used by the Detroit Police Department, inflicting significant emotional damage on Williams and his family.

Williams had been arrested for reputedly stealing five high-end watches at a store in Detroit in October 2018 and a detective used facial recognition technology on a grainy image from the store's CCTV video. The system flagged Williams as a potential match based on a driver’s license photograph. 

A security guard who had not been present at the incident then identified Williams in a photo line-up of Black males.

Arrested in front of his family, Williams had been arrested, arraigned, detained for 30 hours and questioned in connection with a crime that took place in a store he hadn't visited since 2014. Prosecutors and police later apologised for how the case was handled. 

Detroit Police Chief James Craig had earlier admitted facial recognition technology misidentified suspects in 96 percent of cases.

➕ April 2021. Williams sued (pdf) the Detroit Police Department for wrongfully arresting and jailing him. He was the first person known to have been arrested in the US because of a facial recognition failure.

➕ June 2024. The City of Detroit settled with the ACLU and Robert Williams for USD 300,000.

Operator: Detroit Police Department
Developer: DataWorks Plus

Country: USA

Sector: Govt - police

Purpose: Strengthen law enforcement

Technology: Facial recognition
Issue: Accuracy/reliability; Bias/discrimination - race, ethnicity

Transparency: Governance; Black box

Legal, regulatory 👩🏼‍⚖️

Page info
Type: Incident
Published: March 2023
Last updated: July 2024