Porcha Woodruff found herself in an unimaginable situation one morning in Detroit as she prepared her two daughters for school. Six police officers arrived at her doorstep, claiming she was under arrest for robbery and carjacking. Stunned by the accusation, Ms. Woodruff, who was eight months pregnant at the time, gestured to her stomach to show that she was ill-equipped to commit such a crime. Despite her protests, she was handcuffed and taken to the Detroit Detention Center, leaving her crying children behind with her fiancé.
During her 11-hour detention, Ms. Woodruff endured intense physical discomfort, including contractions, back pain, and spasms. It was an agonizing experience exacerbated by the harsh conditions of the holding cell. She was finally released on a $100,000 personal bond later that day and immediately went to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with dehydration and received intravenous fluids. A month later, the charges against her were dismissed by the Wayne County prosecutor.
This dreadful ordeal stemmed from an automated facial recognition search, as detailed in an investigator’s report from the Detroit Police Department. Ms. Woodruff is among six individuals who have been falsely accused of crimes due to this technology, which matches unknown offenders’ faces to photos in a database. Disturbingly, all six victims happen to be Black, making Ms. Woodruff the first woman to report such an incident.
The Detroit Police Department has a track record of utilizing facial recognition technology, conducting an average of 125 searches per year, primarily focusing on Black men. Weekly reports on the technology’s use, provided by the police to Detroit’s Board of Police Commissioners, reveal this concerning trend. Critics argue that these cases expose the weaknesses and dangers associated with facial recognition technology, as innocent individuals become unfairly targeted.
Clare Garvie, an expert on the technology at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, highlights the Detroit Police Department’s awareness of the risks involved with facial recognition. Yet, despite this awareness, the department continues to employ the technology, putting innocent people at risk.
In response to her ordeal, Ms. Woodruff has filed a lawsuit against the city of Detroit for wrongful arrest. Detroit’s police chief, James E. White, acknowledges the gravity of the allegations and emphasizes the need for further investigation before commenting further. Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy maintains that the arrest warrant in Ms. Woodruff’s case was appropriate based on the available facts.
The investigation leading to Ms. Woodruff’s arrest began when a 25-year-old man reported being robbed at gunpoint at a liquor store. He stated that he had previously picked up a woman and spent time with her in his car engaging in sexual activity before being robbed. Days later, the police arrested a man driving the stolen vehicle, and a woman matching the victim’s description dropped off his phone at a gas station.
The police report reveals that a detective used facial recognition technology to identify the woman based on surveillance video from the gas station. The crime analyst responsible for running the search provided Ms. Woodruff’s name, citing a match to a previous mug shot from 2015. During a subsequent identification procedure involving a photo lineup, the victim identified Ms. Woodruff as the woman he encountered.
Psychology professor Gary Wells, an expert on eyewitness identifications, argues against relying solely on facial recognition technology in criminal investigations. He highlights the inherent problem of circular reasoning when combining facial recognition matches with eyewitness identifications, as witnesses are likely to fall into the same trap as the computer.
This incident is not an isolated case in Detroit, as the city faces multiple lawsuits for wrongful arrests resulting from faulty facial recognition matches. Phil Mayor, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, criticizes the flawed investigations and calls attention to the dangerous consequences of relying on facial recognition technology.
For Ms. Woodruff, this traumatic experience profoundly affected her pregnancy and caused ongoing stress. She had to endure the humiliation of being arrested in front of her neighbors, while her daughters were traumatized by the event. Despite the difficulties, she considers herself fortunate that her advanced stage of pregnancy may have convinced authorities of her innocence.
This distressing episode underscores the urgent need for reform and greater scrutiny surrounding facial recognition technology. Innocent lives are at stake, and it is crucial to ensure that these technologies are used responsibly and in conjunction with thorough investigative procedures.
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