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| - An African-American man has filed a complaint against the Detroit police department alleging he was wrongfully arrested on the basis of a flawed facial recognition algorithm. The American Civil Liberties Union, representing Robert Williams, said Wednesday it was the first known case of an unlawful arrest based on face recognition technology, which according to critics is often inaccurate in distinguishing faces of blacks. "Though Robert Williams may be the first known case, he is likely not the first person who was wrongfully arrested and interrogated based off a bogus face recognition hit," the ACLU said on Twitter. "There are likely many people who just don't know that it was flawed technology that made them a target." Williams wrote in the Washington Post he was arrested in January outside his home and held for 30 hours, later learning he was wrongly identified based on surveillance footage from a robbery at a watch store. "I never thought I'd have to explain to my daughters why daddy got arrested," Williams wrote. "How does one explain to two little girls that a computer got it wrong, but the police listened to it anyway?" The news comes amid rising tensions over police misconduct following the deaths of several African Americans at the hands of law enforcement, and concerns that some technologies such as facial recognition may exacerbate discrimination. In a formal complaint to the police department, ACLU attorney Phil Mayor asked for a dismissal of the charges, an expungement of the arrest record and a public apology to Williams. The ACLU also said the police should stop using facial recognition technology as an investigatory tool, and that any photos of Williams should be removed from the agency's database. rl/jm
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