ATLANTA – Randal Quran Reid was once riding to his mom’s house the day after Thanksgiving ultimate yr when police pulled him over and arrested him at the facet of a busy Georgia interstate.
He was once sought after for crimes in Louisiana, they informed him, earlier than taking him to prison. Reid, who prefers to be known as Quran, would spend the following a number of days locked up, making an attempt to determine how he may well be a suspect in a state he says he had by no means visited.
A lawsuit filed this month blames the misuse of facial recognition technology by means of a sheriff’s detective in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, for his ordeal.
“I was confused and I was angry because I didn’t know what was going on,” Quran informed The Associated Press. “They couldn’t give me any information outside of, ‘You’ve got to wait for Louisiana to come take you,’ and there was no timeline on that.”
Quran, 29, is amongst a minimum of 5 Black plaintiffs who’ve filed complaints towards regulation enforcement in recent times, pronouncing they had been misidentified by means of facial recognition technology after which wrongly arrested. Three of the ones complaints, together with one by a woman who was eight months pregnant and accused of a carjacking, are towards Detroit police.
The technology lets in regulation enforcement companies to feed pictures from video surveillance into tool that may seek executive databases or social media for a imaginable fit.
Critics say it ends up in a upper fee of misidentification of other people of colour than of white other people. Supporters say it’s been essential in catching drug sellers, fixing killings and lacking individuals instances and figuring out and rescuing human trafficking sufferers. They additionally contend nearly all of pictures which are scoured are legal mugshots, no longer driving force’s license pictures or random footage of people.
Still, some states and towns have restricted its use.
“The use of this technology by law enforcement, even if standards and protocols are in place, has grave civil liberty and privacy concerns,” said Sam Starks, a senior attorney with The Cochran Firm in Atlanta, which is representing Quran. “And that’s to say nothing about the reliability of the technology itself.”
Quran’s lawsuit was once filed Sept. 8 in federal court docket in Atlanta. It names Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joseph Lopinto and detective Andrew Bartholomew as defendants.
Bartholomew, the use of surveillance video, relied only on a fit generated by means of facial recognition technology to hunt an arrest warrant for Reid after a stolen credit card was once used to shop for two handbags for greater than $8,000 from a consignment retailer outdoor New Orleans in June 2022, the lawsuit mentioned.
“Bartholomew did not conduct even a basic search into Mr. Reid, which would have revealed that Mr. Reid was in Georgia when the theft occurred,” the lawsuit mentioned.
Reached by means of telephone, Bartholomew mentioned he had no remark. A spokesman for the sheriff’s workplace, Capt. Jason Rivarde, mentioned the workplace does no longer touch upon pending litigation.
In a testimony searching for the warrant, Bartholomew cited nonetheless pictures from the surveillance pictures, however didn’t point out using facial recognition technology, consistent with Quran’s lawsuit.
The detective mentioned he was once steered by means of a “credible source” that one of the most suspects within the video was once Quran. A Department of Motor Vehicles {photograph} of Quran gave the impression to fit the outline of the suspect from the surveillance video, Bartholomew mentioned.
Starks believes the supply Bartholomew cited was once facial recognition technology, making the affidavit “at best misleading,” he said. A January email from Jefferson Parish Deputy Chief Dax Russo to the sheriff is further evidence of that, according to Starks.
The email explaining the events that led to Quran’s arrest said members of the force were told again that they need additional evidence or leads when using facial recognition technology for an arrest warrant, according to the lawsuit.
The suit accuses Bartholomew of false arrest, malicious prosecution and negligence. Lopinto failed to implement adequate policies around the use of facial recognition technology, so he, too, should be liable, the lawsuit contends. It seeks unspecified damages.
As Quran sat in jail, his family hired an attorney in Louisiana who presented photos and videos of Quran to the sheriff’s office. The person in the surveillance footage was considerably heavier and did not have a mole like Quran’s, according to his lawsuit.
The sheriff’s office asked a judge to withdraw the warrant. Six days after his arrest, sheriff’s officials in Georgia’s DeKalb County released Quran.
His car had been towed, and the food at the jail had made him sick, he said. Quran, who works in transportation logistics, also missed work.
Nearly a year later, the experience still haunts him. He wonders what would have happened had he not had money to hire an attorney. And he still thinks about that police stop on a Georgia interstate.
“Every time I see police in my rearview mirror, he said, “it just flashes back my mind to what could have happened even though I hadn’t done anything.”