Bloomington settles lawsuit with man wrongfully arrested due to facial recognition technology

The City of Bloomington, Minnesota, has settled a lawsuit brought by a man who said he was wrongly arrested back in 2021. 

Kylese Perryman claims his rights were violated, saying investigators carelessly and incorrectly identified him as the man responsible for a violent felony. He spent five days in jail, 30 days on home monitoring and, after 52 days, charges were eventually dropped

His lawyers say this is a case of an investigator comparing surveillance photos of a suspect in a robbery and carjacking to a booking photo of another man and ultimately arresting the wrong person, ultimately the result of faulty facial recognition technology.

"So, it is not a positive match, and that is all it does," said Dr. Manjeet Rege, director of the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence at the University of St. Thomas. "It generates a lead."

Lawyers say that Perryman was not near the crime scene. A home surveillance image shows Perryman at a party while two other men carjacked someone, robbed some women and then used those stolen cards at Walmart.

Surveillance from Walmart showed the suspect does not have tattoos. Perryman does have tattoos.

"I think it becomes a great benefit if it is utilized properly in sync with other regular law enforcement tools," Rege said. "It may become a risk if there are flaws in the process in which it is implemented."

Law enforcement's failures alleged in the suit include its failure to conduct a lineup or to contact eyewitnesses to confirm the identification, to consider Perryman's verifiable alibis, to note distinct physical differences between Perryman and the suspect and to promptly drop charges against Perryman when his defense attorney produced clear evidence of his innocence. 

"I brought this lawsuit because nobody should go through the ordeal that I went through," said Perryman. "I am relieved that the City of Bloomington will be making changes to prevent this from happening in the future." 

The City of Bloomington will pay Perryman and make sure to implement changes to how they alert other agencies about a suspect.  

WCCO reached out to the city of Bloomington to learn more about the policy changes and how much was awarded to Perryman.