A county transit police detective fed a poor-quality image to an AI-powered facial recognition program, remembers the Washington Post, leading to the arrest of “Christopher Gatlin, a 29-year-old father of four who had no apparent ties to the crime scene nor a history of violent offenses.” He was unable to post the $75,000 cash bond required, and “jailed for a crime he says he didn’t commit, it would take Gatlin more than two years to clear his name.”

A Washington Post investigation into police use of facial recognition software found that law enforcement agencies across the nation are using the artificial intelligence tools in a way they were never intended to be used: as a shortcut to finding and arresting suspects without other evidence… The Post reviewed documents from 23 police departments where detailed records about facial recognition use are available and found that 15 departments spanning 12 states arrested suspects identified through AI matches without any independent evidence connecting them to the crime — in most cases contradicting their own internal policies requiring officers to corroborate all leads found through AI. Some law enforcement officers using the technology appeared to abandon traditional policing standards and treat software suggestions as facts, The Post found. One police report referred to an uncorroborated AI result as a “100% match.” Another said police used the software to “immediately and unquestionably” identify a suspected thief.

Gatlin is one of at least eight people wrongfully arrested in the United States after being identified through facial recognition… All of the cases were eventually dismissed. Police probably could have eliminated most of the people as suspects before their arrest through basic police work, such as checking alibis, comparing tattoos, or, in one case, following DNA and fingerprint evidence left at the scene.
Some statistics from the article about the eight wrongfully-arrested people:

• In six cases police failed to check alibis

• In two cases police ignored evidence that contradicted their theory

• In five cases police failed to collect key pieces of evidence

• In three cases police ignored suspects’ physical characteristics

• In six cases police relied on problematic witness statements

The article provides two examples of police departments forced to pay $300,000 settlements after wrongful arrests caused by AI mismatches. But “In interviews with The Post, all eight people known to have been wrongly arrested said the experience had left permanent scars: lost jobs, damaged relationships, missed payments on car and home loans. Some said they had to send their children to counseling to work through the trauma of watching their mother or father get arrested on the front lawn.

“Most said they also developed a fear of police.”