Tag: wrongful arrest

UK police officer uses AI to create evidence in multiple criminal cases

Law enforcement agencies across the world have rushed to integrate AI into their investigations, promising faster arrests and higher case closure rates. The rising number of wrongful arrests attributed to AI facial recognition systems, however, tells another story: that speed and accuracy are two entirely different things.

But while false arrests due to facial recognition software can easily be blamed on glitchy technology, an even more disturbing pattern is starting to emerge, as AI-wielding officers don’t just misidentify suspects, but use the technology to fabricate evidence.

Over the weekend, the BBC reported that officials in Derbyshire County, England, are investigating one law enforcement officer who’s alleged to have used generative AI to “create evidential material in a number of cases.”

The yet-unnamed officer has not been arrested, but has been suspended from duty pending the outcome of the investigation, which is reportedly being undertaken by Derbyshire police and the Crown Prosecution Service.

“A criminal investigation has been launched into an allegation of perverting the course of justice after the alleged use of AI systems by an officer to create evidential material in a number of cases,” a Derbyshire police spokesperson told the Financial Times.

It’s the first case of its kind in the UK, coming days after the country’s brand-new national PoliceAI centre issued guidance advising officers to stop using generative AI to prepare court statements due to the tech’s tendency to hallucinate answers.

“We’ve said to some police forces, ‘you can’t do that, because we haven’t gone through all the checks and balances’,” Alex Murray, head of the PoliceAI centre, told the Financial Times in an interview. “We need to slow it down a bit.”

While AI hallucinations have indeed found their way into police reports due to laziness – like the case of Utah police whose report claimed an officer transformed into a frog – the seriousness of the Derbyshire investigation suggests that’s unlikely to be the case here.

If anything, it sounds more like the Maine cops who were caught last year posting photographs of a “drug bust” that had clearly been tampered with using generative AI.

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ACLU Sues After Facial Recognition Falsely Identifies Florida Man as a Child Abductor

Police arrested a man in Florida for attempted child abduction in a town he had never visited, and the only evidence linking him to the crime was an AI facial recognition hit. Represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), he is now suing the officers and agencies who put him through it.

In November 2023, police in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, responded to a call about an attempted child abduction at a McDonald’s. Witnesses said an adult man allegedly tried to get the child, identified as a girl under 12 years old, to leave the restaurant with him. According to a police report, facial recognition software concluded with 93 percent confidence that the suspect was Robert Dillon.

In August 2024, Deputies arrested Dillon at his home in Fort Myers, Florida—hundreds of miles away, at the opposite end of the state. “Are you shitting me, man?” Dillon asked the arresting deputy. “I haven’t been out of Fort Myers in two years.” Further, he also said he had never been to Jacksonville Beach.

Dillon posted bail and pleaded not guilty to enticing or luring a child—a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison. More than two months later, prosecutors dropped the charges after his attorney provided evidence that he was at work on the day in question.

But that doesn’t excuse the fact that he was only arrested in the first place, and threatened with prosecution for a particularly heinous offense, because of shoddy police work.

The ACLU is now suing the city of Jacksonville Beach, as well as the individual police officers and officials involved in the case. According to the lawsuit, the responding officer viewed security camera footage of the suspect but didn’t take a copy; instead, he took pictures of the screen with his cell phone. “In the photos, the suspect image is low resolution, and the suspect’s face is partially shadowed and off-axis,” the lawsuit claims.

When an investigator queried the facial recognition system, it was with the officer’s grainy secondhand cell phone photos.

But there were other leads that police could have followed, to either bolster their case or point in another direction. For example, when he approached the girl, the suspect was picking up food that had been ordered ahead; this implies he had an online account, with contact information and a form of payment attached.

“These records could have been used to identify the actual person who placed the suspect’s order,” the lawsuit notes. “Upon information and belief, Jacksonville Beach PD personnel never requested or obtained mobile ordering records, payment data, or online account information from McDonald’s.”

Further, the McDonald’s manager recognized the assailant as a “regular customer”—likely precluding Dillon, who lived and worked on the other side of the state and did not frequently travel. Besides, at no point did investigators search footage for the suspect’s previous visits, either for higher quality images or transaction records. And once they settled on Dillon as a suspect, investigators could have gotten a warrant for his cell phone’s GPS data, showing whether or not he was at a fast food restaurant 300 miles away from his home on the night in question.

The lawsuit notes that when Dillon’s name came up, investigating officer Scott O’Connell queried the police database of license plate readers, which did not detect Dillon’s vehicles in Jacksonville Beach within the 48 hours surrounding the attempted abduction.

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Nude Shrek Text to Ohio State Senator Reportedly Lands Blogger in Jail

Last week, The Columbus Dispatch reported that D.J. Byrnes—an Ohio blogger who runs a Statehouse gossip Substack called The Rooster—was arrested on a misdemeanor warrant at the Ohio Statehouse. Byrnes’ arrest, according to reporting by Signal Ohio, likely stems from a picture he texted to state Sen. Jerry Cirino (R–Kirtland) on May 6. The offending image? A “digitally altered version of Shrek, the ogre with a titular children’s movie franchise, with his penis exposed,” according to Signal Ohio. Police records did not identify Cirino by name, but the outlet confirmed he was the “recipient of the text messages based on the text messages themselves and other details within the police report.”

An affidavit with Byrnes’ arrest report described the ogre as “fully nude with an exposed and erect humanlike penis engaged in an act of masturbation,” according to the outlet. The text exchange also included a message calling Cirino “Young Mussolini.”

On May 8, Cirino reportedly emailed the Kirtland Police Department asking officers to file charges against Byrnes.

“Not only is the message harassing but the disgusting picture is pornographic in nature and not something I want to see on any of my devices,” said the email sent to Kirtland police.

After his arrest on June 1, Byrnes was booked into the Franklin County Jail, where he says he spent 23 hours in custody, according to a statement posted on The Rooster. The Columbus Dispatch reported that he was released on bond on June 2. Byrnes wrote that he would not comment on the specifics of the allegations, but he says he believes he will be found innocent in court. He was arrested on telecommunications harassment charges, according to Signal Ohio, and could face up to six months in jail.

In its analysis of the case, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a pro–free speech organization, cautioned that, “as in essentially all First Amendment cases, context and details matter.” Based on the available facts, however, the organization wrote that “Byrnes should not be facing telecommunications harassment charges.”

FIRE argues that Byrnes’ “shrexting” did not amount to obscenity because the image fails to pass the three-prong obscenity test set by Miller. v. California: Would the average person see the work as appealing “to the prurient interest”? Does it depict sexual conduct in a “patently offensive way” as defined by state laws? And finally, does the work lack “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value”? The text was clearly a piece of “political mockery,” and it was not intended to “arouse anyone’s sexual interest,” FIRE wrote, meaning it fails the Miller test. The “handful of afternoon texts,” from what FIRE reviewed, did not constitute harassment either.

More details about Byrnes’ case may emerge when he appears in court, but if a public official did in fact direct the police department to arrest Byrnes because of his texts, that poses a clear threat to free speech. The Shrek image may be absurd, shocking, and hilarious (depending on your sense of humor), but being punished for exercising your free speech right to criticize and troll (or ogre) public officials is no laughing matter.

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“Dystopian” Police.AI Launches in UK Amid False Arrests

A new UK national center launches within days, promising to find suspects in minutes, except it costs £115 million ($155M) and occasionally arrests the wrong person.

Police.AI, the body charged with pushing dystopian artificial intelligence across all 43 forces in England and Wales, comes with a seductive sales pitch from its frontman. Catch your suspect in minutes. Turn a weeks-long manhunt into a coffee break.

Alex Murray, National Crime Agency director and the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s first AI lead, wants facial recognition to do exactly that. The catch, and it is a fairly significant one, is that the technology keeps flagging innocent people.

Murray’s whole pitch is speed. “What took days, weeks, sometimes months can potentially take hours,” he said, describing AI tools that span CCTV analysis, searches of seized phones and the flagging of fake images.

He likes to point to a Bedfordshire fraud case where the software chewed through Romanian-language phone data from four suspects and produced guilty pleas. Notice the shape of the pattern, though. It is always a list of what the police get to do. The part where the rest of us get scanned, sorted and occasionally pulled off the street tends to fall off the slide.

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Justice Department Fires Four Prosecutors Who Weaponized FACE Act Under Merrick Garland and Jailed Christians Praying at Abortion Clinic

At least four prosecutors who weaponized the FACE Act under Merrick Garland and jailed Christians for praying at abortion clinics have been fired.

Nearly two dozen pro-life activists were charged with the FACE Act for praying at an abortion clinic in October 2020.

In one of the more egregious acts of abuse, the Biden DOJ convicted Paula Harlow last year of federal conspiracy against rights and FACE offenses for peacefully protesting an abortion clinic in DC back in 2020.

US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton appointee, sentenced Harlow to 24 months in prison.

She was the tenth defendant to be sentenced by the Biden Regime related to the peaceful abortion protest.

Paulette Harlow, who was 75 years old at the time, participated in a peaceful protest at an abortion clinic in 2020 and didn’t hurt anyone.

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Another Wrongful Arrest Based on Faulty Facial Recognition Raises Growing Concerns

Jason Killinger walked into Reno’s Peppermill Casino in September of 2023, later that evening as he was exiting the building he would be arrested. The casino’s facial recognition system had flagged him as a “100 percent match” for an individual that had previously been banned from the property. The only problem? It was completely wrong.

After the system flagged Killinger, casino security would approach him, referring to him as “Mike”, an individual who had been previously removed from the property. Despite his insistence and ability to prove that he was in fact not Mike, security would surround and handcuff Killinger before calling the Reno Police Department. Shortly thereafter rookie Officer Richard Jager would arrive on the scene.

Killinger quickly proved he was not the man identified in the system, as he was carrying three valid forms of identification, including a Nevada Real ID compliant drivers license, his Peppermill player’s card, and a debit card, all with his name on it. When this wasn’t enough he offered to retrieve more from his vehicle, which included a pay stub, vehicle registration, and a medical card. Despite all of this copious documentation proving who he was, Officer Jager declined to investigate further, not bothering to look at any of his other identifying documents. Killinger would be arrested and charged with criminal trespass.

He would then spend 11 hours in police custody, only after a fingerprint check at Washoe County jail confirmed his identity would he finally be released.

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‘Major legal victory’: Pro-lifer arrested by Biden SWAT team wins huge settlement

A Catholic father who was targeted by Joe Biden’s abortion-pushing ideologues in government has won a huge settlement for his arrest by SWAT team agents.

Of course the American taxpayer is the one who ultimately must pay as the lawsuit by Mark Houck against the Biden administration actions actually named the Department of Justice as defendant.

Houck’s home and family were “assaulted” by armed federal agents who raided him after he intervened during a pro-life protest to protect his young son from an aggressive and violent abortion escort outside a Planned Parenthood facility.

He later was acquitted of all charges.

According to a report at Lifenews, it is a “major legal victory against blatant targeting and discrimination from former President Joe Biden’s administration.”

The result is a “seven-figure settlement,” although the exact specifications of the deal weren’t released.

Houck’s arrest was made under the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances law, threatening him with up to 11 years in prison, even though the incident triggering the federal assault was unrelated.

The report explained his ordeal began when he stepped in to shield his son from harassment by an abortion escort.

Local police said there was no crime, but for Biden’s abortion-pushing bureaucrats, that wasn’t good enough.

Prosecutors then pursued the high-profile federal counts.

The Biden agenda was blocked when in 2023 a federal jury acquitted him of all counts.

He then sued the DOJ for wrongful prosecution, excessive forces and violation of constitutional rights.

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Final charge dropped against David Daleiden for exposing Planned Parenthood’s aborted baby parts sales

After more than a decade of legal battles, the final charge against pro-life undercover journalist David Daleiden has been dropped and expunged.

In 2015, Daleiden published undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood executives in California casually discussing the sale of aborted baby body parts while sipping wine at an upscale restaurant.

The videos went viral, racking up millions of views and triggering a public backlash against Planned Parenthood. 

Nonetheless, California’s Department of Justice, headed by then-State Attorney General Kamala Harris, a Democrat, aggressively targeted Daleiden and his partner, Sandra Merritt, filing multiple felony charges against them. 

The young investigative reporter said at the time that the day that Harris sent agents to his doorstep “started out a day like any other … except like it was 1984.” 

“To storm into a private citizen’s home with a search warrant is outrageously out of proportion for the type of crime alleged. It’s a discredit to law enforcement, an oppressive abuse of government power,” legal adviser Matt Heffron said at the time. 

It was a clear example of legal warfare waged by the state against a private citizen for daring to expose Planned Parenthood’s grisly commodification of aborted baby body parts.  

The California DOJ’s egregious actions against Daleiden at the behest of Planned Parenthood were intended to shut him up about the abortion giant’s involvement in fetal trafficking and to punish him for speaking out. 

“They are not afraid to use every bit of power at their disposal to force their agenda through,” Daleiden later said. 

“It was Kamala Harris that was given the direction to arrest David Daleiden when he exposed Planned Parenthood’s Baby Body Parts Trafficking Ring,” Liz Churchill noted on X. 

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These common drug tests lead to tens of thousands of wrongful arrests a year, experts say. One state is fighting back

Bird poop scraped off a man’s car appeared on a drug test as cocaine. A toddler’s ashes registered as methamphetamine or ecstasy.

And a great-grandmother’s medicine tested positive for cocaine – spawning a 15-month legal nightmare, forcing her to refinance her home, and spurring a new state law that could set a precedent across the country.

Colorado just enacted the nation’s first law banning arrests based solely on the results of colorimetric drug tests – a field test widely used by law enforcement across the country.

The tests are popular because they’re cheap, portable and can screen for drugs in mere minutes. It’s just not feasible to send all suspected drug samples to state laboratories, which would be far more expensive and could take days or weeks to return results.

But these inexpensive tests also lead to false positives at alarming rates, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania found.

While the actual error rate nationwide is unknown, previous studies by manufacturers have put it around 4%. But the UPenn researchers believe the actual rate is much higher, from 15% to 38%. And a study by the New York City Department of Investigation showed test error rates from 79% to 91% in some correctional settings.

From lost jobs to months in jail, innocent people “are at risk of having their lives derailed by these inaccurate tests,” said Des Walsh, founder of the Roadside Drug Test Innocence Alliance.

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Finally, After 11 Years, Charges Dropped Against Pro-Life Investigator David Daleiden for Exposing Planned Parenthood’s Baby Parts Sales

David Daleiden, a pro-life hero who exposed Planned Parenthood’s baby parts harvesting and sales operations, announced on Wednesday that the final charge against him for exposing this barbarism was dropped this week.

Nine years ago, as reported by The Gateway Pundit, Kamala Harris and the State of California launched an investigation into Daleiden to cover up the baby parts harvesting scandal by Planned Parenthood. This week the final charges against Daleiden were dropped and the case was expunged from his record.

Undercover footage from the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) exposes Planned Parenthood employees discussing the sale of aborted fetal body parts with chilling nonchalance.

The footage reveals the gruesome and inhumane practices carried out by Planned Parenthood’s Houston branch.

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