Photo: Moment RF
A Black man was wrongfully arrested and jailed for two days after he was mistakenly identified as a suspect through NYPD facial recognition technology, per Newsone.
Trevis Williams was arrested in April, two months after a 911 call reported that a delivery driver had exposed himself in a Manhattan building. The victim described the suspect as roughly 5'6" and 160 pounds.
Facial recognition technology flagged Williams, who is 6'2" and weighs 230 pounds, as a match.
“I was so angry … I was stressed out,” Williams recalled. “The man they were looking for — he was eight inches shorter than me and 70 pounds lighter.”
The victim identified Williams in a photo lineup despite location data showing he was 12 miles away in Connecticut at the time of the incident.
“That’s not me, man,” Williams told police during interrogation. “I swear to God, that’s not me.”
“Of course you’re going to say that wasn’t you,” a detective replied.
Police charged Williams the next day without verifying his alibi with his employer.
NYPD spokesperson Brad Weekes said the arrest was based on the victim’s positive ID, Williams’ Amazon employment, and questioning, and not solely using facial technology. However, Weekes confirmed that police never contacted Amazon to verify the identity of the real delivery driver.
Charges against Williams were dismissed in July.
"I was in the process of becoming a correctional officer at Rikers Island,” Williams said. “They kind of froze the hiring process.”
Diane Akerman of the Legal Aid Society issued a warning about police relying on facial recognition technology.
“Everyone, including the NYPD, knows that facial recognition technology is unreliable. Yet the NYPD disregards even its own protocols… It’s clear they cannot be trusted with this technology, and elected officials must act now to ban its use by law enforcement,” Akerman said.
“In the blink of an eye, your whole life could change,” Williams added. “I hope people don’t have to sit in jail or prison for things that they didn’t do.”
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