this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2026
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Grandmother jailed for six months after facial recognition mistake launches $10 million lawsuit against Fargo and detective (www.techspot.com)
submitted 2 days ago by spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works to c/technology@lemmy.world
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A Tennessee grandmother who spent six months in jail after facial recognition tech falsely linked her to a North Dakota bank fraud investigation now wants compensation for what happened. Angela Lipps is suing the City of Fargo and a Fargo Police Department detective for $10 million over the incident, which led to the loss of her home, car, and dog.

In July 2025, a team of US Marshals arrested 50-year-old Lipps in Tennessee at gunpoint while she was babysitting four young children. She was booked into the county jail in Tennessee as a fugitive from justice wanted in North Dakota.

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[–] NABDad@lemmy.world 37 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I've heard about these things happening before.

The cops have surveillance video of a suspect, and they feed it into a face recognition AI. The AI then searches for people who look like the suspect.

It's not finding the suspect. It's finding pictures of people who look like the suspect. The cops are supposed to use that to determine if anyone the AI identified possibly could be the suspect.

However, any stupid, lazy cop will pretend that is sufficient and away they go.

From what I've read, the face matching applications even state clearly that the match doesn't constitute any kind of proof that the person identified is actually guilty of anything. Anyone with any brains would understand that you need to have independent verification before even considering arresting someone. Unfortunately, the government doesn't want people with brains working as cops.

[–] Poojabber@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They dont hire cops for their brains.... im not entirely sure what the credentials for cops are, but brains is probably a disqualification.

[–] NABDad@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

brains is probably a disqualification.

That's what I've heard.

[–] Sackett@thelemmy.club 7 points 1 day ago (3 children)

This is also on whatever hillbilly prosecutor they have in ND that didn't immediately dismiss the charge when it came across their desk.

[–] Wolf314159@startrek.website 3 points 23 hours ago

Hey now. Hillbillies are a proud Appalachian cultural tradition. The grandmother, being from Tennessee, might have been a hillbilly. And it might not have been an insult for her to self apply that label. The idiot cop and asshole prosecutor were in North Dakota.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 day ago

Everybody in that chain should be dragged into civil court