Black man falsely arrested for theft based on face recognition tech

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Advancements in technology are a gift and a curse. We all take full advantage of the things that science and engineering have made possible for us in the 21st century. However, there is a downside to those advancements that have been well documented in the context of social media, child safety, and financial security. However, what seems less talked about is the effect of technology on criminal justice and policing. Sure, there have been movies like Minority Report and Robocop that make the case about the dangers of computers doing a job that lacks human discernment but it’s certainly a topic that needs to be discussed more in the public square. BOSSIP reported on the issues with “iPolicing” in a 2019 article.

According to a Gizmodo report, a Black man from Georgia named Randall Reid was arrested and locked up for a week on charges of stealing $10,000 worth of Louis Vuitton and Chanel purses from a Louisiana boutique. He was on his way to a Thanksgiving dinner when police arrested him based on facial recognition software that identified him as the thief. The problem is, Reid has never even been to Louisiana. His lawyer Tommy Calogero says that Reid is at least 40 pounds lighter than the man in the surveillance video. He told the New Orleans Advocate eventually released Reid with a whole lot of egg on their face with “tacit” acknowledgment of their egregious mistake.

“I think they realized they went out on a limb making an arrest based on a face,” Calogero told the Advocate.