The story of Angela Lipps reveals serious flaws in AI recognition technology in law enforcement.
The Tennessee grandmother spent over five months in jail after police used facial-recognition technology to tie her to a bank fraud case in Fargo, North Dakota. The problem? She’s never even been to North Dakota.
From CNN:
A Tennessee grandmother spent more than five months in jail after police used an AI facial recognition tool to link her to crimes committed in North Dakota – a state she says she’d never been to before.
Police in Fargo, North Dakota, have acknowledged “a few errors” in the case and pledged changes in their operations but stopped short of issuing a direct apology.
Angela Lipps, 50, was first arrested in Tennessee on July 14, according to a statement from the Fargo Police Department and a verified GoFundMe for Lipps.
Unbeknownst to Lipps, a warrant had been issued for her arrest weeks earlier – in Fargo, over 1,000 miles away from her Tennessee home. Months before, several instances of bank fraud had occurred in and around Fargo, according to police.
Fargo Police Chief Dave Zibolski said, “We’re happy to acknowledge when we make errors, and we’ve made a few in this case for sure,” according to KFGO.
Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney explained, “When the chief found some errors that were made in this area where we got our facial recognition and how that worked, we immediately addressed it.
A North Dakota judge signed a warrant for Lipps’ arrest on July 1, 2025, after a string of bank fraud cases in the city. Investigators used another agency’s facial-recognition system, which flagged Lipps as a potential suspect. Federal authorities arrested Lippman in Tennessee weeks later.
🚨 Police stormed a grandmother’s home at gunpoint after facial recognition software said she committed a crime.
— Jessica Rojas 🇺🇸💪 (@VoicesUnheard) March 14, 2026
There was just one problem...
Angela Lipps was 1,200 miles away in Tennessee when it happened.
Bank records proved it.
Still, she spent over five months in jail… pic.twitter.com/vUA2E0VQJG
The authorities accused the grandmother of pulling off a fake identification and theft scheme — even after her attorneys pointed out that there was no evidence showing she had ever been to the state.
Once Lipps was transported to Fargo, one of her lawyers found bank records showing she was in Tennessee when the crimes were committed. Prosecutors were told on December 12 about the exculpatory evidence and dismissed the charges without prejudice on December 23.
Put simply, the government kept a grandmother in a cage for five months after it relied almost solely on faulty AI recognition technology. Zibolski acknowledged that “There were steps that we overlooked” and that “this is a big training issue from that perspective because there could have been other steps maybe that if it was reviewed under this new process, the supervisor or unit commander would have said ‘let’s maybe try a, b and c before we ever take it to the State’s Attorney’s Office.”
Lipps is not the only one who has fallen victim to faulty AI facial recognition use. Detroit police wrongly arrested Porcha Woodruff in 2023 while she was eight months pregnant, according to CBS News. She spent 10 hours in jail before the case against her fell apart.
ABC News reported on the story of Robert Williams, who was wrongly arrested in Michigan after facial-recognition software misidentified him. He spent almost 30 hours behind bars before being released.
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