Black Woman Wrongly Arrested After Faulty Facial Recognition

LaDonna Crutchfield, a Detroit black woman, says she was wrongfully arrested a year ago because of faulty facial recognition and has filed a lawsuit for her detainment.

Crutchfeld, 37, was at home in January 2024 when half a dozen Detroit cops showed up at her front door to take her into custody. They wanted to question her about an assault with attempted murder.
“What am I going to jail?” she asked the officers.

The officers told her they had a warrant for her arrest and took her to the station.

According to Crutchfield, the officers told her she looked like a woman wanted in a Project Greenlight video.

“They told her to get in the vehicle. Handcuffed her, walked down the street in front of her neighbors to see. It was just a false arrest,” her attorney, Ivan Land, said. “She asked him why do you think it’s me, because I’m fat and black like her? And he kinda laughed and said you gotta admit it does look like you.”

Crutchfield alleged that police failed to ask basic questions that could’ve cleared her on the spot.

Investigators knew the name of their suspect — not Crutchfield — and could’ve easily seen the plaintiff is 5 inches shorter and several years younger than the alleged shooter, Crutchfield’s attorney Ivan Land revealed.

Detroit police concede that Crutchfield turned out not to be the suspect that detectives were searching for — but insisted that facial recognition technology wasn’t used here.