(USA, 15th) — A Tennessee woman who had never set foot in North Dakota was wrongly accused of being a bank fraudster due to an artificial intelligence (AI) facial recognition software error. She was arrested and imprisoned for nearly six months, and was eventually released after an alibi was confirmed—however, her life was already in ruins.
According to Sing Tao Daily, this absurd wrongful arrest began last summer. 50-year-old Lips was arrested at home by a team of U.S. marshals at gunpoint, accused of being a fugitive from justice in North Dakota. She was immediately extradited over 1,200 miles to the city of Fargo to face criminal charges of organized fraud. Lips insisted she had never been to North Dakota and had never even been on a plane.
Records show that during the investigation of a series of bank fraud cases between April and May 2023, Fargo police provided surveillance videos to facial recognition software for analysis, and the system matched them with Lips. The investigating detective only compared Lips’ social media photos and license plate images, believed her body shape and hairstyle “matched the suspect,” and issued an arrest warrant without contacting Lips for verification.
Because she was listed as a “fugitive,” Lips was held at a Tennessee jail for nearly four months without bail. During this period, trapped in prison and unable to pay her bills, she lost her house, car, and beloved dog. At the end of October, she was extradited to North Dakota and appeared in court for the first time, facing four counts of theft and four counts of unauthorized use of personal information—felonies.
Appointed attorney Greenwood quickly obtained her bank records and found that during the time she was alleged to have committed the “crimes” in North Dakota, Lips was actually in Tennessee over 1,200 miles away—depositing social security checks, buying cigarettes and pizza. On December 19, police questioned her for the first time, and five days later on Christmas Eve, all charges were finally dropped and she was released.
Lips was finally free, but was wearing only summer clothes and penniless, stranded in Fargo during the freezing winter. With help from a local lawyer and nonprofit founder Martin, she was eventually able to return to Tennessee. Lips stated that the Fargo Police Department has never apologized to her.
This case is the eighth on record in the United States involving wrongful arrest due to facial recognition technology.