Image Recognition
Carronne Sawyer took the week off work to get her husband Alonzo out of jail. But an intelligence analyst using face recognition software had labeled him a possible match with the suspect seen on CCTV footage from the bus, police records show, and an officer had confirmed it. Her husband is taller than the suspect in the video, she explained, and has facial hair and gaps between his teeth. WIRED was unable to speak with Alonzo Sawyer, who is serving time in a Maryland jail on a charge unrelated to the bus incident. The Alonzo Sawyer case adds to just a handful of known instances of innocent people getting arrested following investigations that involved face recognition misidentification—all have been Black men.