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As part of a legal settlement, the Detroit Police Department has agreed to new guardrails limiting how it can use facial recognition technology.<\/p>\n
These new policies<\/a> prohibit the police from arresting people based solely on the results of a facial recognition search, or on the results of photo lineups conducted immediately after a facial recognition search. It also states that photo lineups cannot be conducted solely on the basis of facial recognition \u2014 instead, there must be additional evidence linking a suspect to the crime.<\/p>\n The policies \u2014 which can be enforced by a court for the next four years \u2014 also require police training around the risks and dangers of facial recognition tech, and an audit of all cases since 2017 where facial recognition was used to obtain an arrest warrant.<\/p>\n Roger Williams, a Black man who was arrested after being identified by facial recognition tech, had sued the police department and was represented by lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Civil Rights Litigation Initiative at the University of Michigan Law School.<\/p>\n In announcing<\/a> the settlement, the ACLU described it as achieving \u201cthe nation\u2019s strongest police department policies and practices constraining law enforcement\u2019s use of this dangerous technology.\u201d It also noted that women and people of color are \u201csubstantially more likely to be misidentified by facial recognition technology.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWith this painful chapter of our lives closing, my wife and I will continue raising awareness about the dangers of this technology,\u201d Williams said in a statement.<\/p>\n He reportedly spent 30 hours in jail<\/a> after he was wrongly identified as a man captured on surveillance footage stealing five watches from a store in downtown Detroit. His driver\u2019s license photo came up in a facial recognition search of a database of mugshots and license photos, and the security contractor who provided the footage agreed he was the best match, leading to his arrest.<\/p>\n Prosecutors later dropped the charges. The police department said it\u2019s also paying Williams $300,000 as part of the settlement.<\/p>\n In a statement of its own, the police department said it is \u201cpleased with its work with the ACLU and University of Michigan over the last year and a half,\u201d adding that it \u201cfirmly\u201d believes the new policy \u201cwill serve as a national best practice and model for other agencies using this technology.\u201d<\/p>\n Cities including San Francisco have banned the use of facial recognition by law enforcement<\/a>. Microsoft also recently banned police departments<\/a> from using its AI tech for facial recognition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n