Face Recognition Software Led to His Arrest. It Was Dead Wrong
WiredCarronne Sawyer took the week off work to get her husband Alonzo out of jail. But an intelligence analyst using face recognition software had labeled him a possible match with the suspect seen on CCTV footage from the bus, police records show, and an officer had confirmed it. Around the time Alonzo was released, the victim in the bus incident identified another man as the suspect in the video, Deon Ballard, who is 7 inches shorter and more than 20 years younger than Sawyer, according to charging documents. Maryland Transit Administration Police did not respond to repeated requests for comment and deputy state’s attorney for Baltimore County John Cox declined to confirm Ballard and Sawyer were arrested for the same crime. The Alonzo Sawyer case adds to just a handful of known instances of innocent people getting arrested following investigations that involved face recognition misidentification—all have been Black men.
History of this topic
Wrongly arrested because of facial recognition: Why new police tech risks serious miscarriages of justice
The Independent
Nijeer Parks was arrested due to a false facial recognition match
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