Pregnant woman sues Detroit city after 'unreliable' facial recognition leads to false arrest

A 32-year-old pregnant woman from the US city of Detroit has sued the city and a police officer for wrongfully arresting her for a crime she did not even commit.

The African American woman has claimed that the city’s unreliable facial recognition technology led to her arrest as a robbery and carjacking suspect while she was eight months pregnant.

Porcha Woodruff filed a lawsuit on Thursday (Aug 3) in US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan saying that the entire episode has left her scared, humiliated and her pregnancy jeopardised. She is seeking $25 million in damages.

She was arrested from her home in February by six police officers when she was readying her two young children—ages 6 and 12—for school.

Arrested from home

The lawsuit accuses police of using "unreliable facial recognition" software to connect Woodruff to the crime.

“Are you kidding, carjacking? Do you see that I am eight months pregnant?” shetold one of the arresting officers, according to the lawsuit.

According to Woodruff, she was taken to a detention centre and kept there for 11 hours. The armed robbery had taken place several weeks earlier.

“This case highlights the significant flaws associated with using facial recognition technology to identify criminal suspects,”her lawsuit states.

“Despite its potential, law enforcement’s reliance on facial recognition has led to wrongful arrests, causing humiliation, embarrassment, and physical injury, as evident in this particular incident.”

Third incident

The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, an NGO, has now called on the Detroit Police Department to junk the use of facial recognition technology.

It claimed that it is the third known allegation of a wrongful arrest by Detroit police based on the technology.

In 2021, Robert Williams, a Black man, sued Detroit police after he was arrested when facial recognition technology mistakenly identified him as a suspected shoplifter.

Another Black man, Michael Oliver, sued the city the same year claiming that his false arrest because of the technology in 2019 led him to lose his job.

Meanwhile, Detroit Police Chief James E White in a statement said that the allegations contained in the lawsuit are “deeply concerning” and the department is “taking this matter very seriously.” Additional investigation is needed, White said.

WATCH WION LIVE HERE