“A Georgia man has spoken out after he was falsely charged with theft based on a faulty facial recognition ID, and spent nearly a week in jail before the charges were dropped.

Randal Quran Reid, 29, was mistakenly arrested on November 25 during a traffic stop outside Atlanta, on two theft warrants out of Baton Rouge and Jefferson Parish in Louisiana.

The charges, it later emerged, related to the use of stolen credit cards to buy more than $13,000 worth of designer purses from Chanel and Louis Vuitton from a consignment store outside New Orleans, and another shop in Baton Rouge.

However, Reid, who works as a transportation analyst, was baffled by the charges, because he had never even been to Louisiana, and initially had no idea that he'd been linked to the crimes by facial recognition.

According to the Times, none of the court documents in the case mentioned facial recognition, with the arrest warrant affidavit citing a 'credible source.'

Reid ended up spending six days in jail before the bogus charges were dropped, missing a week of work and spending thousands of dollars on defense attorneys in both Georgia and Louisiana before investigators admitted their error. …”

DailyMail article:
https://mol.im/a/11926021

Mr. Reid probably has a chunk of change coming his way.

quote:

'credible source.'

So the credible source was not credible.

quote:

Sheriff Joseph P. Lopinto III of Jefferson Parish told the outlet Reid's arrest was 'unfortunate by all means.'

'As soon as we realized it wasn't him, we moved mountains in order to get him out of jail,' he added.

Unbelievable it took 6 days for bogus charges to be dropped from a not credible technology? The victim just won the lottery.

quote:

Originally posted by abnmacv:
Mr. Reid probably has a chunk of change coming his way.

I'd hope so. No less than 5x wages lost and lawyers fees spent.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

quote:

Originally posted by abnmacv:
Mr. Reid probably has a chunk of change coming his way.

I'd hope so. No less than 5x wages lost and lawyers fees spent.

I'd hope it's a lot more than 5x wages lost and legal fees. While it's just taxpayer money that will be awarded, will it at least be enough to make it painful for the city when their insurance costs increase? Is there any motivation for the people involved to avoid this happening again?

Perhaps he should sue the maker of the “facial recognition technology”.

The damages need to be enough to “hurt” the people involved. This kind of BS has to be stopped at the outset.

Without reading the full case file nobody can say for sure but it looks like the police really screwed up. I’ve seen facial recognition used in cases and used well. The key is facial recognition can give you an investigative lead but it absolutely should not be used as the only PC for an arrest. If you get a hit off facial recognition then you have to do a lot of follow up to confirm it. It gives a starting point, not a confirmed suspect. I would also guess that the software maker has something in a contract or roll-out training or something that tells agencies the software can produce false hits and not to completely rely on it for charging.

Step 1. Waits til AI finds you, arrests you, tries you, convict you and sentences you. It’s getting scary.

A little detective work would have saved all parties embarrassment and a shif load of money.
But lawyers need money too.

I’ve had people say they weren’t the person we had a warrant for. One guy complained so much that I said, let’s go take your prints and then we will know. I guess he hadn’t heard of digital prints and the response was made w/I a minute. And he was the guy we were looking for.

But if someone had a warrant and had ID in another name from a different state where the warrants were from, I’d give that guy the benefit of the doubt and at the least print him to verify.

Hope he sues the company who made the software as well.

IMO he should sue the Police involved and as part a settlement require that the specific officers involved reimburse him for all his legal fees and spend 6 days sitting in jail without pay and the guards have no idea they are any more than Prisoners.


Normally I support the police but this investigators did wrong and they should be taught how it feels to be falsely accused of a crime and how it feels to burn up money intended for things like a new roof or school fees for the kids.

I'll also bet that the records of this false arrest have not been expunged or even stamped with a notifications that this was a False Arrest. Meaning at every single traffic stop going forward this poor guy will be viewed as a Felon.

Mike, that prove's you're a good cop. You were willing to listen and investigate. That's an increasingly rare trait.

This business of paying people off with public money does nothing to stop the atrocities that are committed against innocent parties. Scooter123 nailed it. When heads are gonna roll and jobs are at stake, and pensions are on the line, this shit will get fixed and get fixed quick. Better yet, make it careers at stake not just a job. Found culpable of this kind of shit, LE career gone for good, none of this bullshit getting hired two counties over. Nobody should suffer that indignation as a result of fools. Suppression of one’s liberty is nothing to be taken lightly.

Unfortunately, I'll be surprised if Mr. Reid gets a single dime of compensation for his ordeal.