A New Jersey man spent 10 months trying to clear his name after facial recognition software wrongfully identified him as the suspect in a violent 2019 getaway.
Nijeer Parks spent at least eight days in jail and was never given a chance to explain that he was not in Woodbridge, New Jersey, the day a man nearly ran an officer over while trying to escape police custody at a hotel.
Parks had, in fact, never heard of the city and didn’t even own a driver’s license, according to court documents. He had proof to show he was at a Western Union in his hometown of Paterson, New Jersey at the time of the encounter.
Facial recognition technology is known to have flaws. In 2019, a national study of over 100 facial recognition algorithms found that they did not work as well on Black and Asian faces. Two other Black men Robert Williams and Michael Oliver, both of whom live in the Detroit area were also arrested for crimes they did not commit based on bad facial recognition matches. Like Parks, Oliver filed a lawsuit against the city over the wrongful arrest.