ArtificialIntelligenceNightmare ·
02/05/2024 14:20
I awoke early yesterday morning to police at my front door with a search warrant. After getting over the absolute horror of this, they explained DS20 had been arrested whilst driving to work on suspicion of robbery and they needed to search his bedroom and possibly other areas of the house for evidence. They would not give me any further details other than showing the relevant documentation for the search. They were polite and respectful under the circumstances and understood my distress and confusion. I watched them throughout the search and managed to ascertain they were looking for a small single item. It was particularly upsetting as my DD16 was getting ready for school and is in the midst of GCSE stress. She shares the bedroom with her brother (not ideal but DS spends alot of time at his girlfriends and we couldn't get planning permission for a loft conversion and for various reasons can't move house) so it was in effect it was her bedroom that was searched. They also searched other specific areas of the house including our (clean) laundry basket but not the dirty one, all our coats and jackets in the hallway (but not in our bedroom) and the recycling bins. They didn't find what they were looking for and left saying DS20 will be interviewed in the next 24 hours and possibly released at which point we would find out what this was all about.
Fast forward several frantic hours and I get a call from the police saying DS20 is allowed a 5 min call with me. The line was really bad (plus DS has ADHD and finds communication difficult) but I managed to glean from DS that the police are claiming that he was identified as a suspect in a robbery of a £200k watch from a man standing outside a Central London hotel. DS sounded terrified and wanted me to come to the police station to help sort this out. I managed to get a few more details, including the date, time and location of the crime before the call cut out. I dash to the police station which was miles away and go through a process of explaining DS's ADHD challenges with communication and executive functioning (after initially being told that as DS is able to drive a car he can't possibly have ADHD or have any challenges because of it - grrrr) and am eventually allowed to be with DS for the solicitor consultation and police interview.
This is when I get to hear what has happened.
DS was identified as a suspect using AI. They uploaded the facial image of the man committing the robbery from CCTV to a database which then uses cameras throughout London to scan the faces of people passing by to see if they score a match. My son has been driving past the same traffic camera around the same on his way to work for the last month and his image was 'matched' to the robber. That morning, police had lain in wait for him and stopped and arrested him. (I did question why they didn't just identify his address from the car number plate and find DS that way and they didn't know). The actual arrest was quite dramatic and traumatic for my son and they used normal cars with flashing lights (not police cars). He's a new driver and wasn't sure if it was actually the police at first but stopped straight away and co-operated fully. The solicitor had viewed the CCTV footage of the crime and assured me and DS that he could clearly see that the image was not DS so it would more than likely be a perfunctory interview which would end in his release.
We then have the interview where the police officer shows us the CCTV footage of the crime. There were 5 men in a gang surrounding the victim. The victim hands over the watch and the 5 men run off. The 5 men's faces are mostly visible but it's night-time so its not very clear but none of them look like my son - most notably they are a different race. My son is mixed race (White/Black African) and they were white possibly Arab or Mediterranean in origin in my eyes. The solicitor then asks the police officer to identify which one of the 5 men was identified as DS. He replays the footage and points out one particularly tall man with a moustache wearing a distinctive jacket. I could see a very rudimentary resemblance to my son, e.g. the moustache and perhaps the nose but what stood out was the man in the footage is white and my son isn't and has (to me anyway) very black African feature and complexion. My son obviously says that is not him and he was not there at the time. He was asked if he has evidence of where he was at the time of the crime. It was a work day and my son does very manual work so is often in bed asleep by 10pm as he is usually exhausted and then leaves for work before 7am. We can't conclusively evidence that other than the family saying he was at home or at his girlfriend's home asleep in bed. DS gives his consent for his phone to be examined for its location at that time. We think that's the end of it and are asked to wait for a bit whilst the police officer does the paperwork.
It turns out that whilst the interviewing police officer agreed that the footage did not show my son, his line manager thought there was enough of a resemblance to warrant further investigation. This meant my son was released on conditional bail whilst the police make further enquiries. They have seized his phone which he also uses for his self-employed work and has been given a date in July to re-attend the police station.
I'm in literal shock for various reasons. I can't believe that AI is being used in this way and that this has happened to us. My daughter is worried sick and feels violated from the search of her bedroom. They went through all her things including underwear. All her school books and study notes were moved and out of place. She keeps finding things in the wrong place. My son is angry and worried. He had just become self-employed and was building his business but now can't do that because he doesn't have his phone. I think we can replace it and get the contacts back but not sure how yet. He's lost at least a day's pay from the arrest. I took time off work yesterday as did my partner because of the search and the time needed to sort everything out. I don't know what to do now or if there is anything I can do considering the police are making further enquiries. Part of me knows that once the phone is looked at they will see that he was at home and no where near the crime location. But then how much faith do they put in the facial recognition software? I'm white, my partner is black and our children are mixed-race and we have a lot of multi-cultural friends of all ethnicities. We are attuned to the differences in races, colour etc but yesterday showed me that someone can view a face and see something completely different. I saw a 'white' man in the footage or at least a different ethnicity to my son as did the solicitor and interviewing officer but the officer's line manager saw someone resembling my son and the AI also matched the image to my son's face.
I don't think I was aware that the Met police are using AI in this way but I'm getting increasingly more angry, worried, stressed - literally all the emotions you can imagine. Does anyone else think this is scary and does anyone have any advice on what to do next (other than just wait months and months for the investigation to conclude and hope that the phone location clears him)?