A US man was wrongfully arrested and thrown in jail for nearly a week due to a seemingly false facial recognition match.
Randall Reid, 28, was pulled over by cops as he was driving along the highway in Georgia, on 25 November. An arrest warrant for Reid was issued as part of a theft investigation involving three suspects accused of stealing more than $10,000 in Chanel and Louis Vuitton handbags in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans, Louisiana.
He was arrested and jailed until 1 December. Reid’s attorney, Tommy Calegero, claimed officials from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office had used facial recognition software to try and identify the suspects, and one of the matches falsely pinpointed Reid.
Calegero told The Register detectives didn’t directly admit to using the technology but “tacitly acknowledged the only connection between [Reid] and the perpetrator was the face, and I believe a driver’s license.”
“My understanding is that it had to be facial recognition,” he added.
Reid denied any criminal involvement in the case. “They told me I had a warrant out of Jefferson Parish. I said, ‘What is Jefferson Parish?'” Reid explained to The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate. “I have never been to Louisiana a day in my life. Then they told me it was for theft. So not only have I not been to Louisiana, I also don’t steal.”
Detectives from the Baton Rouge Police Department secured an arrest warrant for Reid, who saw the JPSO’s identification of Reid. Calegero said Reid was later released from DeKalb County jail after police realized differences between him and the suspect. Reid has a mole on his face and looks slimmer compared to the suspect’s “flabby arms”.
“Police could have checked his height and weight or made an effort to speak to him or asked to walk through his house to look for evidence. He would have complied,” Calogero said. “There are 300 million people in this country. All of us have someone who appears identical to us,” he warned.
Law enforcement at the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office reportedly have access to facial recognition software provided by biometric startups Clearview AI and Morphotrak. The Register has asked the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office for comment.
Experts have repeatedly warned that facial recognition technology is less accurate at identifying people and women with darker skin. Reid isn’t the first person of color to have been wrongfully arrested due to computer vision algorithms employed by law enforcement returning a false match.
“Not eating, not sleeping. I’m thinking about these charges,” Reid said of his time in jail. “Not doing anything because I don’t know what’s really going on the whole time. They didn’t even try to make the right ID.” ®
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