Fargo crime suspect says AI face recognition software failed. Police say there was more to the arrest
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Angela Lipps was arrested in July for a crime she says she didn’t commit in a state she’s never been to.
Still, she was held in custody for more than five months. Her lawyer Jay Greenwood said Fargo police did not do their due diligence before using AI-driven facial recognition software as evidence to arrest her for a series of bank fraud incidents.
Greenwood said it all started with a video from the bank’s security camera.
“They took a still of that video that they forwarded on to a company that does facial recognition,” he said. “They flagged Angela based on her social media presence, and then the police officer looked at that information and said, ‘OK, it looks kind of like the same person, essentially.’ And they signed off on it. At no point did they ever talk to Angela.”
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Greenwood said Lipps’ own bank statements showed her away from Fargo at the time of the crime.
When asked if there was other evidence besides AI used to arrest Lipps, Fargo Police Chief Dave Zibolski told MPR News, “There was other steps that were taken to corroborate, yes.”
He wouldn't elaborate because the investigation is still active, saying Lipps has not been ruled out as a subject.
"Ms. Lipps has not been eliminated in our investigation thus far, and that's the reason that it was released without prejudice to allow us additional investigative opportunities,” Zibolski said. “And we're hoping that we'll be able to definitively say one way or the other at some juncture."
Facial recognition is a useful law enforcement tool, but should only be used as a first step, according to Manjeet Rege, the director of the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence at the University of St. Thomas.
“That is where a human would come in and say, ‘OK, now let's look at other information. Is this person actually at that location? Or do we have other information that actually puts that person in a different location,’” he said.
Rege said in the Fargo case, it seems like the technology was misapplied.
“If applied correctly, you know, facial recognition can really help law enforcement in identifying subjects and doing a great job in matching a picture from the crime scene against a huge database.”
Lipps' lawyer, Jay Greenwood, said he’s skeptical that the department used anything beyond the facial recognition software, since that was the main evidence listed in the arrest warrant and affidavit of probable cause.
“[Zibolski’s] just using an artfully crafted way of saying, 'Yeah, our police officers looked at her social media profile and it seemed to check out,’” Greenwood said. “That's all he's saying.”
Greenwood also noted that for months, no one from the Fargo Police Department spoke to Lipps. She was first arrested in Tennessee in July and was extradited to North Dakota in October. The Fargo Police Department said in a statement they were first made aware that Lipps was in custody on Dec. 5.
Zibolski said they weren’t able to interview her immediately.
“She wasn't here for us to attempt an interview, because she didn't live here, obviously,” he said.
Zibolski said the Fargo Police Department does a good job of balancing fighting crime and protecting civil liberties, noting that technology is important for keeping people safe.
“It's also got to be used appropriately with the right safeguards. We strive to do that every day, and we did everything in this case that was available to help support that,” he said.
Meanwhile, Fargo leaders had a closed-door meeting Monday to get advice from the city’s attorney about the case. And Greenwood, Angela Lipps’ lawyer, says his client is looking into filing a civil lawsuit.
