Last year, Detroit police wrongly arrested LaDonna Crutchfield after facial recognition software incorrectly identified her as the culprit of a shooting, according to a lawsuit filed on February 21. While police did not even have a warrant for Crutchfield's arrest, they handcuffed, detained, and jailed her anyway. The officers had conducted no investigation, relying fully on a facial recognition database. Police released Crutchfield only when it became obvious that they had arrested the wrong person. Crutchfield's suit argues that her wrongful arrest was a violation of her Fourth Amendment rights.
According to the suit, Crutchfield was at home with her children, resting between work shifts, when six police officers knocked on her door. One of the officers, Anthony Williams, allegedly demanded that she step out of the house, after which he told her "that she was going to jail today, and he didn't want to arrest her in front of her children." According to the suit, the officers would not tell Crutchfield why she was being arrested.
"So basically, you had to go to court," the suit says one officer told Crutchfield. "They summoned you to court and you didn't show up. I don't know if it got lost in the mail or whatever, but it says that you have a warrant for your arrest. All this means is that you have to come to court." However, the suit says this isn't true—the officers didn't have a warrant for Crutchfield's arrest.
