{
  "id": "R-0943",
  "title": "Police face recognition wrongful arrests, multiple US jurisdictions, 2020–2025",
  "short_title": "Face recognition searches lead to wrongful arrests",
  "jurisdiction": {
    "country": "United States",
    "region": "St. Louis, Missouri; Miami, Florida; Detroit, Michigan",
    "level": "municipal"
  },
  "domain": "policing",
  "system_type": "face_recognition",
  "system_name": "Police face recognition searches (multiple vendors)",
  "deployed_by": "St. Louis Police Department; Miami Police Department; Detroit Police Department",
  "year_start": 2020,
  "year_end": 2025,
  "harm_type": "mixed",
  "subject_count_estimate": 8,
  "subject_identification": "named_public_advocate",
  "oversight_trigger": "journalism",
  "oversight_date": "2025-01-15",
  "remedy_status": "partial",
  "documentation_status": "verified",
  "summary_50w": "Police in several US cities arrested people identified by face recognition searches without adequate follow-up investigation. At least eight people, most of them Black, were wrongly arrested. A 2025 Washington Post investigation found that officers often bypassed departmental rules on how face recognition results may be used. Detroit adopted new rules after a lawsuit.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "type": "other",
      "title": "Police Use of Face Recognition Continues to Wrack Up Real-World Harms",
      "url": "https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/01/police-use-face-recognition-continues-wrack-real-world-harms",
      "publisher": "Electronic Frontier Foundation",
      "date": null,
      "access_date": "2026-04-15",
      "is_primary": false,
      "notes": "Originating report"
    },
    {
      "type": "other",
      "title": "The Washington Post — Police use of AI facial recognition (2025 investigation)",
      "url": "https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2025/police-artificial-intelligence-facial-recognition/?itid=hp-top-table-main_p001_f002",
      "publisher": "The Washington Post",
      "date": null,
      "access_date": "2026-04-18",
      "is_primary": false
    },
    {
      "type": "other",
      "title": "The Washington Post — Facial recognition false arrest lawsuit (2021-04-13)",
      "url": "https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/04/13/facial-recognition-false-arrest-lawsuit",
      "publisher": "The Washington Post",
      "date": null,
      "access_date": "2026-04-18",
      "is_primary": false
    },
    {
      "type": "other",
      "title": "The New York Times — Facial recognition false arrests (2023-03-31)",
      "url": "https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/31/technology/facial-recognition-false-arrests.html",
      "publisher": "The New York Times",
      "date": null,
      "access_date": "2026-04-18",
      "is_primary": false
    },
    {
      "type": "other",
      "title": "Face Recognition Software Led to His Arrest. It Was Dead Wrong | WIRED",
      "url": "https://www.wired.com/story/face-recognition-software-led-to-his-arrest-it-was-dead-wrong/",
      "publisher": "WIRED",
      "date": null,
      "access_date": "2026-04-18",
      "is_primary": false
    },
    {
      "type": "other",
      "title": "The New York Times — Facial recognition arrest (2020-06-24)",
      "url": "https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/technology/facial-recognition-arrest.html",
      "publisher": "The New York Times",
      "date": null,
      "access_date": "2026-04-18",
      "is_primary": false
    },
    {
      "type": "other",
      "title": "The New York Times — Facial recognition false arrest (2023-08-06)",
      "url": "https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/06/technology/facial-recognition-false-arrest.html",
      "publisher": "The New York Times",
      "date": null,
      "access_date": "2026-04-18",
      "is_primary": false
    }
  ],
  "tags": [
    "facial_recognition_misid",
    "wrongful_arrest",
    "racial_bias",
    "ongoing_litigation",
    "street_level_surveillance",
    "civil_liberties",
    "us_policing"
  ],
  "extraction_metadata": {
    "first_collected": "2026-04-15T17:05:09.398114+00:00",
    "last_verified": "2026-10-10T15:46:29.971673+00:00",
    "verified_by": "human_review"
  }
}