Steve Talley facial recognition wrongful arrest, jailing

Steve Talley, a financial adviser in Denver, Colorado, was wrongfully arrested twice for bank robberies he did not commit, based on flawed facial recognition technology and questionable identification procedures.

Identified using facial recognition technology operated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), friends and his former wife verified that it was Talley in the CCTV footage shared with the police. 

Talley spent nearly two months in a maximum security jail before being released when his public defender obtained surveillance records proving he was at work during the first robbery. The charges were dismissed in November 2014.

Following his release, Talley filed a series of complaints with the Denver Police Department, seeking justice for what he alleged was a pattern of misconduct and mistreatment, including being badly beaten up by a group of officers when he had been arrested.

A year later, Talley was again arrested for the second robbery, but the chief witness changed his testimony by saying he did not think Talley was the robber. The case collapsed, though the charges were never fully dropped.

In 2016, Talley sued the Denver Police Department, the FBI, and the city of Denver, receiving a USD 50,000 settlement.