A US man was wrongfully arrested and thrown in jail for nearly a week due to a seemingly false facial recognition match.
Randall Reid, 28, was pulled over by cops as he was driving along the highway in Georgia, on 25 November. An arrest warrant for Reid was issued as part of a theft investigation involving three suspects accused of stealing more than $10,000 in Chanel and Louis Vuitton handbags in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans, Louisiana.
He was arrested and jailed until 1 December. Reid's attorney, Tommy Calegero, claimed officials from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office had used facial recognition software to try and identify the suspects, and one of the matches falsely pinpointed Reid.
Calegero told The Register detectives didn't directly admit to using the technology but "tacitly acknowledged the only connection between [Reid] and the perpetrator was the face, and I believe a driver's license."
"My understanding is that it had to be facial recognition," he added.
Reid denied any criminal involvement in the case. "They told me I had a warrant out of Jefferson Parish. I said, 'What is Jefferson Parish?'" Reid explained to The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate. "I have never been to Louisiana a day in my life. Then they told me it was for theft. So not only have I not been to Louisiana, I also don't steal."
Detectives from the Baton Rouge Police Department secured an arrest warrant for Reid, who saw the JPSO's identification of Reid. Calegero said Reid was...
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