DETROIT (WXYZ) — A Detroit woman is suing the Detroit Police Department for making a false arrest, to which they admit.
The lawsuit accuses DPD of using a facial recognition database. The department denies using facial recognition in this case.
The arrest happened on January 23, 2024. Police body-worn camera footage shows Detroit police knocking on LaDonna Crutchfield’s door at her home on the west side. They asked her to step outside. The mother of three complied and expressed confusion over the officers' visit.
An officer told Crutchfield, "I want to do this politically correct. Okay? You gotta go to jail today, but I don't wanna do this in front of the kids either."
Crutchfield replied, "Me?"
The officer said, "Yeah. So, hold down. Calm down."
Another officer can be heard telling Crutchfield that she essentially has a warrant for her arrest.
Crutchfield said, "But I'm lost. What am I going to jail for? I ain't did nothin'."
The officer replied, "Basically, you have to go to court. They summoned you to court, and you didn't show up. I don't know if it got lost in the mail or whatever, but essentially you have a warrant for your arrest, and all that means is you have to come to court," he explained.
She replied, "But I never received anything. That's why I'm really lost."
In an interview with 7 News Detroit, Crutchfield said, “I was very puzzled. Nobody can give me answers. I was just really hurt because I’m like, I try to do the right thing. I try to teach my children to do the right thing.”
Ivan Land, Crutchfield’s attorney, said it took more than 5 months for Detroit police to fulfill a request for public records through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). He questions what was redacted. An officer's statement mentions the search of a database and Green Light camera video.
Land told 7 News Detroit, “We believe there was some type of facial recognition, and the reason why, there was no type of investigation conducted.”
“You just looked at a photo and said, ‘Uh, it’s her, '" he said.
Land further explained, “You looked at someone’s face and determined it was them without doing any warrant, and then you send the troops out to arrest someone without a warrant, and then they lied to her and tell her they have a warrant. How low can you get?”
DPD and six officers are named in the lawsuit, as well as an unnamed female officer. Crutchfield said the officer-in-charge, who's named in the suit, spoke with her at the Detroit Detention Center after she was booked.
Land said, “When she entered the room, he had a copy of her ID and he had a comparison and that’s when he asked her, well you gotta admit this looks like you and that’s when she stated, ‘Because I’m fat and I’m Black?”
The attorney said DPD released his client only after she agreed to leave her DNA and fingerprints.
“She couldn’t say 'no.' She could not tell the officers that she was not giving up her DNA and her fingerprints because she had to get to her second job," Land said.
7 News Detroit interviewed Assistant Chief Charles Fitzgerald about the accusations.
When asked if it was a case of mistaken identity, he replied, "Yes. But this case has absolutely nothing to do facial rec (recognition). Facial rec was never run in this case. It was never submitted. So, I don’t know where she, our complainant, got this information.”
Fitzgerald said officers had probable cause to arrest Crutchfield in connection to a shooting, although it turned out she was the wrong person and had nothing to do with it.
“There was an investigation done. The investigation led back from a partial (license) plate, led us to a house on the east side. That east side home led us back to our plaintiff. When they compared an image they got from a video, just an image. They didn’t do any facial rec. It led us to this individual," he explained.
He said things were cleared up when the officer-in-charge talked to Crutchfield at the detention center.
Fitzgerald said, "It was determined that it was not her."
When asked if officers lied about Crutchfield having an arrest warrant, he said, "I don’t know what was actually said. I know that was in her complaint, but I don’t know what was said."
Fitzgerald said he did not look at the body-worn camera footage.
Crutchfield's attorney said, "She's never committed a crime in her life. So, this defamatory statement that they're making about she was connected by a license plate... be careful. Be careful."
