Police used AI facial recognition to wrongly arrest TN woman for crimes in ND

A Tennessee grandmother spent more than five months in jail after police used an AI facial recognition tool to link her to crimes committed in North Dakota – a state she says she’d never been to before.

Police in Fargo, North Dakota, have acknowledged “a few errors” in the case and pledged changes in their operations but stopped short of issuing a direct apology.

Angela Lipps, 50, was first arrested in Tennessee on July 14, according to a statement from the Fargo Police Department and a verified GoFundMe for Lipps. Unbeknownst to Lipps, a warrant had been issued for her arrest weeks earlier in Fargo, over 1,000 miles away from her Tennessee home, following several instances of bank fraud.

Investigators used “our partner agency’s facial recognition technology” – specifically Clearview AI used by West Fargo police – to identify Lipps as a suspect. Clearview AI, which scrapes billions of photos from social media and the internet, flagged Lipps as having similar features to the suspect. Fargo Police Chief Dave Zibolski admitted that relying on this unverified AI data was a significant error.

Lipps' case highlights the growing concerns over the rapid integration of AI in law enforcement without proper oversight. After being extradited to North Dakota – her first time ever on a plane – she spent months in custody facing felony charges. It wasn't until her lawyer produced bank records proving she was in Tennessee during the crimes that the charges were dismissed. She was released on Christmas Eve.

Chief Zibolski noted that the department has since prohibited the use of the partner agency's AI system and will now require all facial recognition identifications to be reviewed by high-level commanders. Despite the clear misidentification and the trauma caused to Lipps, the department has yet to issue a formal apology, citing the ongoing nature of the fraud investigation.