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Incident 592: Facial Recognition Misidentifies Pregnant Woman Leading to False Arrest in Detroit

Responded
Description: Porcha Woodruff was arrested and subsequently had charges dropped due to an unreliable facial recognition match. Despite being visibly pregnant, she was implicated in a robbery and carjacking based on an outdated photo used in a lineup.

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Entities

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Alleged: unknown developed an AI system deployed by Detroit Police Department, which harmed Porcha Woodruff.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
592
Report Count
3
Incident Date
2023-02-16
Editors
Applied Taxonomies
MIT

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
 

1.3. Unequal performance across groups

Risk Domain

The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
 
  1. Discrimination and Toxicity

Entity

Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
 

AI

Timing

The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
 

Post-deployment

Intent

Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
 

Unintentional

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

Incident OccurrenceDetroit woman sues city after being falsely arrested while 8 months pregnant due to facial recognition technology‘Are you kidding, carjacking?’: The problem with facial recognition in policingFacial Recognition Led to Wrongful Arrests. So Detroit Is Making Changes. - Response
Detroit woman sues city after being falsely arrested while 8 months pregnant due to facial recognition technology

Detroit woman sues city after being falsely arrested while 8 months pregnant due to facial recognition technology

nbcnews.com

‘Are you kidding, carjacking?’: The problem with facial recognition in policing

‘Are you kidding, carjacking?’: The problem with facial recognition in policing

theguardian.com

Facial Recognition Led to Wrongful Arrests. So Detroit Is Making Changes.

Facial Recognition Led to Wrongful Arrests. So Detroit Is Making Changes.

nytimes.com

Detroit woman sues city after being falsely arrested while 8 months pregnant due to facial recognition technology
nbcnews.com · 2023

A Detroit woman is suing the city and a police detective after she was falsely arrested because of facial recognition technology while she was eight months pregnant, according to court documents.

Porcha Woodruff, 32, was getting her two chi…

‘Are you kidding, carjacking?’: The problem with facial recognition in policing
theguardian.com · 2023

Porcha Woodruff was eight months pregnant when police in Detroit, Michigan came to arrest her on charges of carjacking and robbery. She was getting her two children ready for school when six police officers knocked on her door and presented…

Facial Recognition Led to Wrongful Arrests. So Detroit Is Making Changes.
nytimes.com · 2024
Kashmir Hill post-incident response

In January 2020, Robert Williams spent 30 hours in a Detroit jail because facial recognition technology suggested he was a criminal. The match was wrong, and Mr. Williams sued.

On Friday, as part of a legal settlement over his wrongful arre…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.

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