Grandmother Sues City Over Alleged AI Facial Recognition Error Leading to Months in Jail

A Tennessee grandmother is suing the city of Fargo, North Dakota, and its police department, alleging that an erroneous artificial intelligence facial recognition match led to her wrongful arrest and incarceration for nearly six months. The lawsuit, filed September 15, 2026, by Angela Lipps, 50, claims that authorities exclusively used a flawed AI facial recognition match to investigate a bank theft and extradite her from Tennessee to North Dakota in July 2025, despite her having no connection to the crime or the state.

Lipps stated in a GoFundMe post that she spent 108 days in a Tennessee county jail without bail, awaiting resolution of charges that identified her as a fugitive from justice. She was reportedly arrested at gunpoint at a neighbor's home in Tennessee, where she was caring for four young children.

The bank theft occurred in April and May 2025, involving an unidentified woman who allegedly used fake IDs and stolen identities to commit bank fraud in Fargo and West Fargo, North Dakota. According to the lawsuit, officials used a photograph from one of the fraudulent ID cards to conduct a facial recognition search with Clearview AI, rather than utilizing surveillance footage.

Prosecutors alleged that Fargo police characterized the AI match as a positive identification, despite Clearview AI's guidelines that such matches should be treated as potential leads requiring independent corroboration. The lawsuit claims Detective Lucas Heck ignored exculpatory evidence, including Lipps' financial and travel records that confirmed her presence in Tennessee during the thefts. It also states that surveillance video showed physical differences between Lipps and the suspect, such as a different build and the presence of a neck tattoo on Lipps that the suspect lacked.

In contrast, the West Fargo Police Department reportedly declined to pursue charges because the AI match was uncorroborated, with a captain describing the technology as "close to a last-ditch effort." Lipps was extradited to North Dakota and held on a $100,000 bond, facing eight felony charges. All charges were dismissed on December 24, 2025, after Lipps provided bank records verifying her location in Tennessee at the time of the offenses. Upon her release, Lipps discovered she had lost her residence, car, and personal property.

Following public scrutiny, the Fargo Police Department and the city acknowledged investigative errors in a March 2026 press conference. Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney stated that the department addressed issues with the facial recognition technology upon discovering them. Experts in police technology expressed concern, noting that this case is one of over a dozen known instances of alleged police mishandling of facial recognition technology. Clare Garvie, deputy director of Technology Law & Policy at the Policing Project, reported at least 16 misidentifications due to facial recognition leading to wrongful arrests, often because further investigative steps were not taken.

Nate Freed-Wessler, deputy director at the American Civil Liberties Union, echoed these concerns, stating that the increasing use of artificial intelligence in law enforcement is fueling wrongful arrests. He noted that such incidents have been occurring for at least five to six years and appear to be on the rise, with some police departments allegedly avoiding documentation of their AI use.