Porcha Woodruff lives in Detroit, Michigan. She was eight months pregnant when police arrested her last February on suspicion of robbing a man in his car.
– I said they have the wrong person, but they didn’t listen, says Porcha Woodruff to SVT Nyheter.
AI
First winner of the Miss AI beauty pageant crowned
Finally squeezed on avocado: New AI scanner tells when the fruit is ripe
In the United States, the police have access to facial recognition software in investigative work, a tool that has also been discussed in Sweden. But despite the fact that technology has improved significantly in recent years, there are still cases where the wrong person has been identified.
Flaws in the AI programs
The organization The Innocence Project, which, among other things, works to have wrongful convictions asserted, has identified at least seven cases where Americans have been wrongly singled out through the programs. Six of them are African-American, and it has long been debated whether there are flaws in the programs when it comes to identifying black people.
– It is more common with African Americans, I am a black woman and the fact that this happened in front of my children makes me want to set a good example, says Porcha Woodruff.
Together with her lawyer, Porcha Woodruff now plans to sue the investigator who was responsible for the case.
The police decline an interview
James Andrew Lewis, an AI expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, points out in turn that wrongful arrests occurred even before the technology was available.
– If you use false arrests as an example, there is a long line of false arrests that did not rely on facial recognition technology, he says.
SVT Nyheter has sought the Detroit police, who have declined an interview, but they have said after Porcha’s case that they will review their routines regarding the use of AI programs, according to previous statements.
In the clip above, you see how eight months pregnant Porcha Woodruff was arrested at her home in Detroit, Michigan.