Detroit officials are being sued by a Michigan man who claims the city’s use of facial recognition technology led to his wrongful arrest. 

Attorneys representing Robert Julian-Borchak Williams filed a federal lawsuit on April 13 against the city, its police chief James Craig, and Detroit police detective Donald Bussa for “the grave harm caused by the misuse of, and reliance upon, facial recognition technology.”

Farmington Hills resident Williams was wrongfully arrested on January 9, 2020, after being mistakenly linked to the October 2019 theft of five watches worth around $4,000 from a Shinola luxury goods store in Motor City. 

When the Detroit Police Crime Intelligence Section ran video footage of the theft through their facial recognition system, Williams was erroneously identified as the shoplifter. 

“I came home from work and was arrested in my driveway in front of my wife and daughters, who watched in tears, because a computer made an error,” said Williams in a written statement. “This never should have happened, and I want to make sure that this painful experience never happens to anyone else.”

Following his arrest, Williams spent 30 hours in an overcrowded police cell where he had to sleep on bare concrete, reports The Detroit News.

The 75-page suit was filed in US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the University of Michigan Law School’s Civil Rights Litigation Initiative, and the ACLU of Michigan on behalf of Williams.

The suit accuses the defendants of violating the Michigan Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act and Williams’ Fourth Amendment rights, which protect American citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.

Detroit police chief James Craig said that the error that led to Williams’ arrest was not spawned by technology.

“Facial recognition was used, but that’s not why the arrest was bad,” said Craig. He added that the mistake was caused by “”sloppy work and lack of management oversight.”

In the wake of the blunder by law enforcement, Detective Bussa’s supervisor was demoted from his position as commander to the rank of captain. 

Williams’ wrongful-arrest record and personal information have been expunged from the police database. 

Thycotic and Centrify have completed their previously-announced merger, and are now operating under the temporary name of ThycoticCentrify, it has been announced.

The two cybersecurity firms have joined together to form a single cloud identity security vendor, pooling their respective expertise and tools in the area of privileged access management (PAM).

The announcement comes amid growing cloud adoption as organizations seek to enable hybrid working models, particularly following the shift to remote working during COVID-19. This has in turn provided more opportunities for cyber-criminals to undertake identity-based attacks, with an increasing number of privileged accounts being created. As a result of this trend, it has been estimated that PAM will double in value from $2.2bn to $5.4bn by 2025.

The newly combined company has now begun integrations, and aims to use its extensive expertise in PAM to offer a broad SaaS offering that meets the needs of organizations of all sizes.

ThycoticCentrify said it expects to unveil a new brand in the second half of 2020, which references both brands legacies.

Art Gilliland, CEO, ThycoticCentrify commented: “The accelerated use of cloud services has skyrocketed in recent years, and we believe ThycoticCentrify is uniquely qualified to meet the evolving identity security needs across all industries.

“Our combined organization will deliver comprehensive PAM solutions built in the cloud, for the cloud that our customers require to enable their business transformation.”

The deal has been backed by private equity firm TPG Capital, which will continue to support the growth of ThycoticCentrify going forward.

In June 2020, Thycotic announced the acquisition of fellow PAM solution provider Onion ID to extend its PAM offering.