NEWS & VIEWS
Robert Williams.
ACLU
Computer error
Detroit police arrest wrong Black man based on facial recognition technology error, ACLU says By Steve Neavling
A 42-year-old Black man
said Detroit police unjustly arrested him after facial-recognition technology incorrectly flagged him as a shopli ting suspect. Robert Williams was arrested in January at his home in Farmington Hills in front of his wife and two young daughters and locked up for 30 hours. He was accused of stealing watches from Shinola. While in jail, police showed him two blurry surveillance photos of the suspect. “This is not me,” Williams recalls saying in a video about his arrest. “I hope you all don’t think all Black people look alike.” e said one o the officers responded “The computer must have gotten it wrong.” It wasn’t until later that night that Williams was released from jail, his attorney, V ictoria Burton-Harris, said. The charges have been dismissed. “But the damage is done,” BurtonHarris, who is running for Wayne C ounty prosecutor, wrote in an op-ed for the AC LU on Wednesday. “Robert’s DNA sample mugshot and fingerprints all of which were taken when he arrived at the detention center are now on file. His arrest is on the record. Robert’s wife, Melissa, was forced to explain to his boss
6 July 1-7, 2020 | metrotimes.com
why Robert wouldn’t show up to work the next day. Their daughters can never un-see their father being wrongly arrested and ta en away their first real experience with the police.” The AC LU of Michigan lodged a complaint against Detroit police. Facial-recognition technology has come under fire because e perts say it’s unconstitutional, unreliable, and racially biased. Studies have shown that the software misidentifies people o color more often than white people, which Metro Times reported in a cover story in July 2 0 19 . U .S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib was criticiz ed for warning about the technology’s bias, and saying police should hire Black analysts to review the footage because non-Black people can also have a bias. “Analysts need to be African-Americans, not people that are not,” Tlaib told Detroit Police C hief James C raig during a tour of his department’s Real Time C rime C enter, according to a video published by Th e Detroit New s. “I think non-African-Americans think AfricanAmericans all look the same. Detroit Police C hief James C raig repeatedly claimed the technology would not lead to false arrests, and suggested Tlaib’s comments were racist. “It’s a software. It’s biometrics,” C raig told Fox & Friends. “And, to put race in it ... we’re talking about trained profes-
sionals. y staff goes through intense training with the FBI, and so they’re not looking at race, but it’s measurements. We were appalled when she made this statement.” Detroit police did not respond for comment. Despite mounting criticism of the technology, the Detroit Board of Police C ommissioners approved the use of the software. Activists are calling on Detroit C ity C ouncil to reject the use of the technology. The contract with the software company is set to expire soon. Opponents of the technology have mobiliz ed two protests in which a caravan of cars drove past the homes of council members to encourage them to oppose the contract extension. Detroit’s facial-recognition software is especially pervasive because it’s used on a quickly expanding surveillance networ o high definition cameras under Mayor Mike Duggan’s Project Green ight a crime fighting initiati e that began in 2 0 16 at gas stations and fast-food restaurants. Since then, the city has installed hundreds of surveillance cameras at parks, schools, low-income housing complexes, immigration centers, gas stations, churches, abortion clinics, hotels, health centers, apartments, and addiction treatment centers. The city is also
installing high definition cameras at roughly 5 0 0 intersections at a time when other cities are scaling back because of privacy concerns. i en the technology’s flaws and how widely it is being used by law enforcement today, Robert likely isn’t the first person to be wrong ully arrested because of this technology,” Burtonarris said. e’s ust the first person we’re learning about.” Last week, Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation that would ban facial recognition technology on the federal level and withhold money from state and local police departments that continue to use it. Supporters of the bill, including Tlaib, arrest as one of the reasons they support a ban. This man was handcuffed in ront of his family for something he did not do because police depended on this technology,” Tlaib said in a news release. “One person is too many and I have long called for a ban on the use of facial recognition technology. I am proud to join my colleagues today in introducing a moratorium on the use of facial recognition technology.” Last week, Boston became the latest city to bar police from using facial recognition technology, joining San Francisco, Oakland, C ambridge, Mass., and Somerville, Mass. Activists are calling on Detroit C ity C ouncil to bar the technology as the city debates whether to extend a contract with the software company. “Facial recognition is a uniquely dangerous form of surveillance,” Evan Greer, deputy director of the digital rights group Fight for the Future, said in a news release. “This is not just some Orwellian technology o the uture it’s being used by law enforcement agencies across the country right now, and doing harm to communities right now. Facial recognition is the perfect technology for tyranny. It automates discriminatory policing and exacerbates existing injustices in our deeply racist criminal justice system.” Duggan and C raig continued to defend facial recognition technology, saying it’s an important tool in fighting crime. C raig said the department is in estigating the three officers in ol ed in the arrest of the wrong man. “It had nothing to do with technology, but certainly had everything to do with poor investigative work,” C hief said Thursday, Th e Detroit New s reported. “But there is a bright light in it, the third investigator assigned to this, he discovered problems. The video wasn’t clear as he felt it should be. He felt more should ha e been done. e notified the prosecutor’s office and they uic ly responded.”
