DETROIT (WXYZ) — Detroit Police Department Chief James White spoke Wednesday about a lawsuit filed last week in response to the department’s use of facial recognition technology that led to a Detroit woman being falsely arrested.
The lawsuit, filed by Porcha Woodruff, 32, following her Feb. 16 arrest, accuses the department of incorrectly identifying her through the use of facial recognition software.
Related: Woman's arrest in carjacking case spurs call to end Detroit police facial recognition
“There have been many reports that the individual arrested was because of misidentification and facial recognition and that is factually incorrect,” White said. “What is true is that the arrest emanated from, candidly and unfortunately, a poor investigation."
Woodruff, who was pregnant at the time of the arrest, was identified as a suspect involved in a January carjacking in Detroit by the victim using a photo lineup.
“On January 29, 2023 an individual picked up an unknown female in the area of East 7 Mile and Hoover. He then drove to the area of Gratiot and Bestmore. After arriving at Gratiot and Bestmore, the unknown female exited and got into a black Tahoe. A male subsequently exited that Tahoe and produced a handgun and carjacked the individual,” the chief said. “This suspect, the female had spent some time with the driver of that vehicle and that victim who was carjacked.”
The suspect who exited the Tahoe took possession of the victim’s vehicle and cellphone, which was later tracked to a BP gas station on Van Dyke Avenue near Harper Road in Detroit.
Police were able to obtain surveillance footage from the gas station that showed the person who left the phone. That photo was included in a lineup shown to the victim, but White said that's not department policy.
“An image of the individual who dropped the phone or who left the phone there… was used for facial recognition. The photo lineup from the facial was created. The carjacking victim identified the image of the person as Ms. Woodruff as a perpetrator,” White said. “The image of this female who dropped the phone was submitted in accordance with our policy with facial recognition because it was one of those violent felonies. The technology yielded an investigative lead.”
The lead, the chief revealed, produced “73 possibilities of who the suspect could be.” The issue, White says, was the human intervention portion of the investigation. Department policy does not allow the use of facial recognition in photo lineups.
"Our policy prohibits that from happening. The victim's act of identifying Ms. Woodruff as the perpetrator served as the basis for the warrant submission," White said. "It was later learned that Ms. Woodruff was not the perpetrator."
A DPD investigator ordered the release of Woodruff after noticing she was eight months pregnant — a key indicator that she was not the perpetrator. The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office dismissed the case “because the complainant did not appear in court.”
"I have determined that there have been a number of policy violations by the lead investigator in this case. DPD policies clearly state that members are to avoid the use of photos that so closely resemble the suspect that a person familiar with the suspect might find it difficult to distinguish," White said.
Effective immediately, the department has banned the use of facial recognition photos in photo lineups.
Additional policy changes have been recommended to the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners, which said Wednesday they will expedite a vote. They include:
- No member will be allowed to use facial recognition derived images in a photographic lineup
- All photo lineups will be conducted using a sequential double-blind presentation to the victim
- The department will place six photos in an envelop with each being pulled one by one instead of six photos on one sheet of paper
- Double-blind draw: A detective not involved in the case and does not know who the suspect is will conduct the envelop lineup procedure
Woodruff’s case isn’t the first wrongful arrest the department has made involving facial recognition. Robert Williams sued DPD in 2021 after facial recognition mistakenly identified him as a shoplifting suspect, leading to his arrest.
In 2021, Michael Oliver sued the city after he was wrongfully arrested. He’s skeptical the changes will work.
“I was pulled over by the police scout car. They ran my name, told me I had a felony warrant out for my arrest,” Oliver said.
Oliver found himself in the back of a police car on his way to jail in 2019, accused of larceny in a case he knew nothing about. After posting bond, he spent months in court fighting for his innocence.
“It was kind of hard because people were doubting me like I committed a crime. Family looked at me different like I committed a crime. That's what they thought I really did,” Oliver said.
Video of the incident was put in facial recognition software, which identified Oliver. His picture was then used in a photo lineup, and the victim pointed to Oliver.
His case was eventually dropped after a judge compared his picture to video of the incident.
Oliver’s attorney David Robinson said his client’s case is very similar to Woodruff's.
“It’s darn near identical with the exception of a different detective, apparently,” Robinson said.
Robinson and Oliver argue the changes don’t go far enough. Despite their case four years ago and other past cases, the same mistake was made, and they feel it will be made again if facial recognition is used.
“The elephant in the room is this is empirical evidence that says facial recognition is inherently biased,” Robinson said.
Oliver is hopeful for change.
“They should just take that out like completely because people shouldn't have to go through what I had to go through,” Oliver said.
The Board of Police Commissioners is scheduled to meet Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
