In January 2020, Robert Williams had just arrived home from work when he was arrested. As his daughters watched, he was handcuffed and taken to a detention center in Detroit, Michigan. Officers refused to tell him why. He was held for nearly 30 hours.  

Police showed Williams a blurry surveillance photograph taken during a robbery. It wasn’t him. “The cops looked at each other. I heard one say that ‘the computer must have gotten it wrong,” Williams told lawmakers on July 13, during a hearing on law enforcement’s use of facial recognition. 

Williams, who is Black, had been incorrectly identified by facial recognition. 

“It was so backwards,” he said. “I thought I knew the law, and I was wrong.”