Police face recognition (Detroit PD, DataWorks Plus)

entry · p2026-09-06-114 · validated

All six people have been Black and Ms. Woodruff is the first woman to report it

tech: police-face-recognition
passes the definition as: face-embedding networks fit to labelled face images, searched against mugshot and licence databases
from: 2020-01
region: US
domain: agency
side: loss
people: 6 people falsely accused after a false facial recognition match (2023-08-06)
effect: 3 wrongful arrests by one department (2023-08-06) — three wrongful arrests by Detroit PD in three years, all of Black residents, including a woman eight months pregnant
reversible: no
who holds the switch: owner:the police department
attribution: named
source kind: secondary
the statistic: ACLU, 6 August 2023: Porcha Woodruff's arrest was the third known wrongful arrest by Detroit PD from a false face-recognition match in three years, and the sixth such case reported nationally; all six people were Black. Robert Williams' arrest was January 2020.
source: https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/after-third-wrongful-arrest-aclu-slams-detroit-police-department-for-continuing-to-use-faulty-facial-recognition-technology
proposed by: researcher (opus), brief 2026-09-06, era-2020-2023
received: 2026-09-06T09:39:39-04:00
harvest report: impacts/harvest/2026-09-06-era-2020-2023.md

Rulings, in order

2026-09-06T09:39:47-04:00 · validatorpass — quote found on the fetched page (exact match; HTTP 200 text/html; charset=UTF-8)
2026-09-06T09:59:36-04:00 · sessionseverity — wrongful arrest and detention

The proposal as it arrived (JSON)

{
 "id": "p2026-09-06-114",
 "received": "2026-09-06T09:39:39-04:00",
 "proposer": "researcher (opus), brief 2026-09-06, era-2020-2023",
 "kind": "entry",
 "sha": "1db1920750146f5c",
 "data": {
  "kind": "entry",
  "tech": "police-face-recognition",
  "tech_name": "Police face recognition (Detroit PD, DataWorks Plus)",
  "definition": "face-embedding networks fit to labelled face images, searched against mugshot and licence databases",
  "from": "2020-01",
  "region": "US",
  "domain": "agency",
  "side": "loss",
  "people": {
   "n": 6,
   "unit": "people falsely accused after a false facial recognition match",
   "date": "2023-08-06"
  },
  "effect": {
   "n": 3,
   "unit": "wrongful arrests by one department",
   "date": "2023-08-06",
   "what": "three wrongful arrests by Detroit PD in three years, all of Black residents, including a woman eight months pregnant"
  },
  "reversible": false,
  "switch": "owner:the police department",
  "statistic": "ACLU, 6 August 2023: Porcha Woodruff's arrest was the third known wrongful arrest by Detroit PD from a false face-recognition match in three years, and the sixth such case reported nationally; all six people were Black. Robert Williams' arrest was January 2020.",
  "source": "https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/after-third-wrongful-arrest-aclu-slams-detroit-police-department-for-continuing-to-use-faulty-facial-recognition-technology",
  "quote": "All six people have been Black and Ms. Woodruff is the first woman to report it",
  "attribution": "named",
  "source_kind": "secondary"
 },
 "from_file": "impacts/harvest/2026-09-06-era-2020-2023.md"
}