Detroit Police Department approves new rules on facial recognition technology

As part of a court settlement, Detroit police have agreed to new guidelines limiting the use of facial recognition technology.

These new guidelines prohibit police from arresting people based solely on the results of a facial recognition search or the results of photo lineups conducted immediately after a facial recognition search. It also states that photo lineups cannot be conducted based on facial recognition alone – instead, there must be additional evidence linking a suspect to the crime.

The guidelines, which can be enforced in court over the next four years, also require police training on the risks and dangers of facial recognition technology and an audit of all cases since 2017 in which facial recognition was used to obtain an arrest warrant.

Roger Williams, a black man who was arrested after being identified using facial recognition technology, had sued the police and was represented by lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Civil Rights Litigation Initiative at the University of Michigan Law School.

In announcing the settlement, the ACLU described it as achieving the “strongest police department policies and practices in the country limiting law enforcement’s use of this dangerous technology.” It also noted that women and people of color are “significantly more likely to be misidentified by facial recognition technology.”

“As this painful chapter of our lives comes to a close, my wife and I will continue to raise awareness about the dangers of this technology,” Williams said in a statement.

He reportedly spent 30 hours in jail after being mistakenly identified as a man seen on surveillance video stealing five watches from a downtown Detroit store. His driver’s license photo showed up in a facial recognition search of a database of mugshots and driver’s license photos, and the security contractor who provided the footage agreed he was the best match, leading to his arrest.

Prosecutors later dropped the charges. The police department said it would also pay Williams $300,000 as part of the settlement.

In its own statement, the police department said it was “pleased with the collaboration with the ACLU and the University of Michigan over the past year and a half” and added that it “firmly believes” that the new policy “will serve as a national best practice and model for other agencies using this technology.”

Cities like San Francisco have banned the use of facial recognition by police, and Microsoft also recently banned police departments from using its AI facial recognition technology.