AI Causes Police to Wrongfully Arrest Innocent Woman, Imprisoned for Months
Technology has led to a fatal error in criminal justice. An artificial intelligence system’s failure resulted in an innocent woman being imprisoned for six months.
Angela Lipps, a 50-year-old woman from Tennessee, United States, was arrested after police in Fargo, North Dakota, identified her as a suspect in a bank fraud case.
The case began when Fargo police investigated several suspicious transactions on a US military identification card that occurred at a bank between April and May 2025. In surveillance camera footage, a woman was seen using the card to withdraw tens of thousands of US dollars.
To help identify the perpetrator, police employed artificial intelligence technology in the form of facial recognition to analyse the video footage. According to the detective, Lipps was deemed similar to the perpetrator based on facial features, body shape, and hairstyle and hair colour. Consequently, she was immediately designated as a suspect.
Authorities arrested Lipps at her home in Tennessee on 14 July 2025. At the time, Lipps said she was caring for four small children when officers arrived and pointed weapons at her.
“It was very frightening. I can still see it in my head now, repeatedly,” Lipps said, as reported by local media WDAY News.
After her arrest, Lipps was placed in a county jail in Tennessee. She defended herself, stating that she had never set foot in North Dakota. The mother of three further claimed she had never flown on a plane at all. Most of her life had been spent in Tennessee. Lipps noted that her travel history was very limited, extending only to a few neighbouring states, and she did not know anyone in that area.
Lipps ultimately spent nearly four months in a Tennessee jail. She was held without any bail. She was only transferred to a North Dakota prison on 30 October 2025, approximately 108 days after her arrest.
Upon arrival there, Lipps faced eight criminal charges, consisting of four allegations of using personal identification without authorisation and four counts of theft. Despite being detained for months, Lipps stated that not a single police officer interviewed her to request information regarding the case.