4 ms·

AI misidentification results in wrongful arrest; man seeks justice

98 points by text0404 4mo ago

LPisGood 4mo ago
This is horrifying. The prosecutor who sought an extradition based on an 85% accurate AI model should be disbarred.
- delichon 4mo ago
  Kidnapping and false imprisonment charges seem reasonable.
  - trumpdong 4mo ago
    Reasonable, yes, but they won't happen, because prosecutors never prosecute themselves.
  - jfengel 4mo ago
    "Reasonable" does not have a legal meaning. Or rather, it has hundreds of thousands of pages of legal meaning. Which means it means nothing.
- giantg2 4mo ago
  [dead]
- monster_truck 4mo ago
  I have bad news about the accuracy of almost all forensic science, especially fingerprints and dna
  - okanat 4mo ago
    That's why we don't trust them alone or can demand tests from different sources. AI, however, gets sold as an ultimate cure. Just like anything computers touch, it is assumed infallible.
  - jfengel 4mo ago
    I have bad news about Prosecutorial Immunity. It is damn near impossible to punish a prosecutor for anything done in the line of work.
AndrewKemendo 4mo ago
I sent this to my lawyer friends who like to help so hopefully we can get some restitution for him These clowns need to be taken for all the money they can
- Paracompact 4mo ago
  I don't understand why you would be downvoted. Is your comment raising a pitchfork? Yes. But sometimes when a person's life gets ruined, pitchforks deserve to come out. > Richardson’s attorney showed time sheets proving he was at work 400 miles away from Florida when the stolen car was sold. Richardson said he has never been to Florida, and his attorney tried to present this evidence for months. > Richardson alleged racial profiling played a role in his misidentification. “I want to say racial profiling. The guy said it was a guy with dreads and a big nose, and then they picked me out of a lineup of guys that look nothing like me,” Richardson said. > While he was incarcerated [for two months], Richardson lost his job and his home. He also said he lost custody of two of his children. Everyone: It's okay to get angry at injustice. Indeed it is the more noble reaction than to shrug and say, "Now let's be reasonable, I'm sure the institution that caused this will redress this."
  - AndrewKemendo 4mo ago
    People have made accounts just to downvote me. So I must be doing something right.
    - Paracompact 4mo ago
      > People have made accounts just to downvote me. How can you tell?
      - AndrewKemendo 4mo ago
        A greentext username with 10 minute old account, zero karma and 1 comment that comment being something negative in response usually There was an example months ago but I don’t keep track of the specifics
insane_dreamer 4mo ago
Maddening. This will happen more often in many domains, and it raises the general question of liability. Should it be the AI company that created the model? The company that build the face recognition software using the model? The police department that decided to use the face recognition software? I would assume the police department is the one legally liable, though they may turn around and sue the software company, and I guess the question is whether they can sue the frontier model company.
- deleted 4mo ago
  [deleted]
- FpUser 4mo ago
  In this particular case false AI identification was only small part of generic fuckup. Choosing guy from line-up done in completely racially biased way, prosecutor office refusing proof of crime has been committed by someone else, etc. etc. The only way this ever going to be fixed is when our fucking overlords will be held personally responsible which is never.
momentmaker 4mo ago
It sounds like a plot for this movie: Mercy [0] [0] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31050594/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31050594/
NDlurker 4mo ago
This is exactly like that case from Fargo earlier this year. We got a new police chief after this, but she still hasn't been compensated and nobody got in trouble for it. https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/03/18/fargo-polices-use-of-ai-raises-questions-after-suspect-says-facial-recognition-failed https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/03/18/fargo-polices-use-o...
inopinatus 4mo ago
origin is geoblocking. https://archive.is/DtYSf https://archive.is/DtYSf
lordleft 4mo ago
I sincerely hope this man get seek redress for this disgusting miscarriage of justice.
daohieu91 4mo ago
85% accurate is doing a lot of hiding LOL. Searching a multi-million-face gallery and even high per-comparison accuray turns into mostly false positive. THese systems are only ever defensible as an investigative lead, neve as probable cause.
- ufocia 4mo ago
  What does 85% accurate even mean?
  - Paracompact 4mo ago
    To the average person it means: No matter what task you apply the tool to, that you will be right 85% of the time, and 85% is a solid B, a passing grade, so let's use it.
    - spwa4 4mo ago
      So in other words, if you show it 100 random people and ask who did it, it will tell you to arrest 15 people, with a 15% chance not a single one of them is guilty? (assuming it will operate independently for every individual you show it) That's great. Of course, putting such a system on public cameras, scanning large amounts of people, is about as stupid as some of the biggest disasters in medicine (using a 98% effective drug on random people, regardless of whether it would help them or not. You REALLY want to check what happens if you're wrong before applying it to a large number of people)
- hackingonempty 4mo ago
  > THese systems are only ever defensible as an investigative lead, neve as probable cause. That's why the cops followed up with a photo lineup shown to the victim before applying for a warrant.
  - hattmall 4mo ago
    Which is stupid though because obviously it's just going to be someone that looks like the person they are after. The idea with a lineup is that you have some other sort of evidence, not based on how people look, and then have them identify the person. If you used a tool to find people that look a certain way and then put that person in a line up with other "non-85%" matches it's reasonable the respondent would pick that person.
giantg2 4mo ago
This isn't just AI misidentification. This is also an eye witness picking him out of a lineup. This is really AI extending the reach of the already sketchy eye witness practice.
- none2585 4mo ago
  Racist technology and a racist plaintiff in two racist states. What could go wrong????
  - blastonico 4mo ago
    Three "racist" in a sentence is a bingo. Congratulations.
    - zokula 4mo ago
      [dead]
- Joker_vD 4mo ago
  > already sketchy eye witness practice. Frankly, eyewitness' testimony should be inadmissible in court. Why does it even count as evidence at all, and "direct" evidence at that? People can't be trusted to accurately remember things. Neither can technology be trusted to uncover the circumstance correctly. Perhaps we should just abolish the criminal system entirely; wrongful prosecution is a much bigger problem than complete lack of prosecution would ever be.
  - Rekindle8090 4mo ago
    [dead]
deleted 4mo ago
[deleted]
SpicyLemonZest 4mo ago
> Richardson’s attorney showed time sheets proving he was at work 400 miles away from Florida when the stolen car was sold. Richardson said he has never been to Florida, and his attorney tried to present this evidence for months. I continue to not understand why anyone finds it tolerable for the justice system to move so slowly. I don't want to make excuses for AI identification, but no identification process is perfect, it should not be possible that it takes months to clear up.
- jfengel 4mo ago
  The first word of the article is "Jalil", the name of the person involved. That is the answer to your question.
  - SpicyLemonZest 4mo ago
    I don't blame him for a second for thinking that, but the Fargo woman this last happened to was white. There's something wrong with the procedures themselves.
- Paracompact 4mo ago
  > I don't want to make excuses for AI identification, but no identification process is perfect, it should not be possible that it takes months to clear up. Indeed you shouldn't make excuses. "{Sketchy component} is just one part of the process and is harmless in principle because we have other safeguards such as... nothing we care to subject to your scrutiny" is the prototypical excuse of a broken system: > The office stated, “Facial recognition technology is used as one tool among many available to investigators. In this case, it was one tool, but certainly not the only tool, which lent to the probable cause determination that Mr. Richardson was the perpetrator of these crimes.” The other tool appears to have been good ol' fashioned racism: > Richardson alleged racial profiling played a role in his misidentification. “I want to say racial profiling. The guy said it was a guy with dreads and a big nose, and then they picked me out of a lineup of guys that look nothing like me,” Richardson said.
  - 4mo ago
dqv 4mo ago
> He stated he was held in the Mecklenburg County Jail for one month. > While he was incarcerated, Richardson lost his job and his home. He also said he lost custody of two of his children. Alright. Time to ban AI in policing. It can't be used responsibly, so it can't be used at all.
- blastonico 4mo ago
  Do you prefer human identification, like picking the suspect among a group lineup? More accurate I guess?
  - hackingonempty 4mo ago
    The article says the cops used "AI" to find a suspect then the victim identified them in a photo lineup. That provided the probable cause to get a judge to sign a warrant.
  - Rekindle8090 4mo ago
    [dead]
pants2 4mo ago
At first I thought this was a re-post of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48449513 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48449513, but no, it seems this is becoming a trend. Especially the "jailed for one month with no evidence" thing. Well, except for a lineup, which I've learned is about as legit as a lie-detector test, field sobriety test, or a drug-sniffing dog; tenuous at best and very easy to get a false positive.
- simulator5g 4mo ago
  We can call all these inaccurate methods The Injustice System. Next episode: The Dishonorable AI Judge.

98 points by text0404 4mo ago

LPisGood 4mo ago

This is horrifying. The prosecutor who sought an extradition based on an 85% accurate AI model should be disbarred.

delichon 4mo ago
Kidnapping and false imprisonment charges seem reasonable.
- trumpdong 4mo ago
  Reasonable, yes, but they won't happen, because prosecutors never prosecute themselves.
- jfengel 4mo ago
  "Reasonable" does not have a legal meaning. Or rather, it has hundreds of thousands of pages of legal meaning. Which means it means nothing.
giantg2 4mo ago
[dead]
monster_truck 4mo ago
I have bad news about the accuracy of almost all forensic science, especially fingerprints and dna
- okanat 4mo ago
  That's why we don't trust them alone or can demand tests from different sources. AI, however, gets sold as an ultimate cure. Just like anything computers touch, it is assumed infallible.
- jfengel 4mo ago
  I have bad news about Prosecutorial Immunity. It is damn near impossible to punish a prosecutor for anything done in the line of work.

AndrewKemendo 4mo ago

I sent this to my lawyer friends who like to help so hopefully we can get some restitution for him These clowns need to be taken for all the money they can

Paracompact 4mo ago
I don't understand why you would be downvoted. Is your comment raising a pitchfork? Yes. But sometimes when a person's life gets ruined, pitchforks deserve to come out. > Richardson’s attorney showed time sheets proving he was at work 400 miles away from Florida when the stolen car was sold. Richardson said he has never been to Florida, and his attorney tried to present this evidence for months. > Richardson alleged racial profiling played a role in his misidentification. “I want to say racial profiling. The guy said it was a guy with dreads and a big nose, and then they picked me out of a lineup of guys that look nothing like me,” Richardson said. > While he was incarcerated [for two months], Richardson lost his job and his home. He also said he lost custody of two of his children. Everyone: It's okay to get angry at injustice. Indeed it is the more noble reaction than to shrug and say, "Now let's be reasonable, I'm sure the institution that caused this will redress this."
- AndrewKemendo 4mo ago
  People have made accounts just to downvote me. So I must be doing something right.
  - Paracompact 4mo ago
    > People have made accounts just to downvote me. How can you tell?
    - AndrewKemendo 4mo ago
      A greentext username with 10 minute old account, zero karma and 1 comment that comment being something negative in response usually There was an example months ago but I don’t keep track of the specifics

insane_dreamer 4mo ago

Maddening. This will happen more often in many domains, and it raises the general question of liability. Should it be the AI company that created the model? The company that build the face recognition software using the model? The police department that decided to use the face recognition software? I would assume the police department is the one legally liable, though they may turn around and sue the software company, and I guess the question is whether they can sue the frontier model company.

deleted 4mo ago
[deleted]
FpUser 4mo ago
In this particular case false AI identification was only small part of generic fuckup. Choosing guy from line-up done in completely racially biased way, prosecutor office refusing proof of crime has been committed by someone else, etc. etc. The only way this ever going to be fixed is when our fucking overlords will be held personally responsible which is never.

momentmaker 4mo ago

It sounds like a plot for this movie: Mercy [0] [0] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31050594/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31050594/

NDlurker 4mo ago

This is exactly like that case from Fargo earlier this year. We got a new police chief after this, but she still hasn't been compensated and nobody got in trouble for it. https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/03/18/fargo-polices-use-of-ai-raises-questions-after-suspect-says-facial-recognition-failed https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/03/18/fargo-polices-use-o...

inopinatus 4mo ago

origin is geoblocking. https://archive.is/DtYSf https://archive.is/DtYSf

lordleft 4mo ago

I sincerely hope this man get seek redress for this disgusting miscarriage of justice.

daohieu91 4mo ago

85% accurate is doing a lot of hiding LOL. Searching a multi-million-face gallery and even high per-comparison accuray turns into mostly false positive. THese systems are only ever defensible as an investigative lead, neve as probable cause.

ufocia 4mo ago
What does 85% accurate even mean?
- Paracompact 4mo ago
  To the average person it means: No matter what task you apply the tool to, that you will be right 85% of the time, and 85% is a solid B, a passing grade, so let's use it.
  - spwa4 4mo ago
    So in other words, if you show it 100 random people and ask who did it, it will tell you to arrest 15 people, with a 15% chance not a single one of them is guilty? (assuming it will operate independently for every individual you show it) That's great. Of course, putting such a system on public cameras, scanning large amounts of people, is about as stupid as some of the biggest disasters in medicine (using a 98% effective drug on random people, regardless of whether it would help them or not. You REALLY want to check what happens if you're wrong before applying it to a large number of people)
hackingonempty 4mo ago
> THese systems are only ever defensible as an investigative lead, neve as probable cause. That's why the cops followed up with a photo lineup shown to the victim before applying for a warrant.
- hattmall 4mo ago
  Which is stupid though because obviously it's just going to be someone that looks like the person they are after. The idea with a lineup is that you have some other sort of evidence, not based on how people look, and then have them identify the person. If you used a tool to find people that look a certain way and then put that person in a line up with other "non-85%" matches it's reasonable the respondent would pick that person.

giantg2 4mo ago

This isn't just AI misidentification. This is also an eye witness picking him out of a lineup. This is really AI extending the reach of the already sketchy eye witness practice.

none2585 4mo ago
Racist technology and a racist plaintiff in two racist states. What could go wrong????
- blastonico 4mo ago
  Three "racist" in a sentence is a bingo. Congratulations.
  - zokula 4mo ago
    [dead]
Joker_vD 4mo ago
> already sketchy eye witness practice. Frankly, eyewitness' testimony should be inadmissible in court. Why does it even count as evidence at all, and "direct" evidence at that? People can't be trusted to accurately remember things. Neither can technology be trusted to uncover the circumstance correctly. Perhaps we should just abolish the criminal system entirely; wrongful prosecution is a much bigger problem than complete lack of prosecution would ever be.
- Rekindle8090 4mo ago
  [dead]

deleted 4mo ago

[deleted]

SpicyLemonZest 4mo ago

> Richardson’s attorney showed time sheets proving he was at work 400 miles away from Florida when the stolen car was sold. Richardson said he has never been to Florida, and his attorney tried to present this evidence for months. I continue to not understand why anyone finds it tolerable for the justice system to move so slowly. I don't want to make excuses for AI identification, but no identification process is perfect, it should not be possible that it takes months to clear up.

jfengel 4mo ago
The first word of the article is "Jalil", the name of the person involved. That is the answer to your question.
- SpicyLemonZest 4mo ago
  I don't blame him for a second for thinking that, but the Fargo woman this last happened to was white. There's something wrong with the procedures themselves.
Paracompact 4mo ago
> I don't want to make excuses for AI identification, but no identification process is perfect, it should not be possible that it takes months to clear up. Indeed you shouldn't make excuses. "{Sketchy component} is just one part of the process and is harmless in principle because we have other safeguards such as... nothing we care to subject to your scrutiny" is the prototypical excuse of a broken system: > The office stated, “Facial recognition technology is used as one tool among many available to investigators. In this case, it was one tool, but certainly not the only tool, which lent to the probable cause determination that Mr. Richardson was the perpetrator of these crimes.” The other tool appears to have been good ol' fashioned racism: > Richardson alleged racial profiling played a role in his misidentification. “I want to say racial profiling. The guy said it was a guy with dreads and a big nose, and then they picked me out of a lineup of guys that look nothing like me,” Richardson said.
- 4mo ago

dqv 4mo ago

> He stated he was held in the Mecklenburg County Jail for one month. > While he was incarcerated, Richardson lost his job and his home. He also said he lost custody of two of his children. Alright. Time to ban AI in policing. It can't be used responsibly, so it can't be used at all.

blastonico 4mo ago
Do you prefer human identification, like picking the suspect among a group lineup? More accurate I guess?
- hackingonempty 4mo ago
  The article says the cops used "AI" to find a suspect then the victim identified them in a photo lineup. That provided the probable cause to get a judge to sign a warrant.
- Rekindle8090 4mo ago
  [dead]

pants2 4mo ago

At first I thought this was a re-post of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48449513 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48449513, but no, it seems this is becoming a trend. Especially the "jailed for one month with no evidence" thing. Well, except for a lineup, which I've learned is about as legit as a lie-detector test, field sobriety test, or a drug-sniffing dog; tenuous at best and very easy to get a false positive.

simulator5g 4mo ago
We can call all these inaccurate methods The Injustice System. Next episode: The Dishonorable AI Judge.