Incident 630: Alleged Macy's Facial Recognition Error Leads to Wrongful Arrest and Subsequent Sexual Assault in Jail

Description: Harvey Murphy Jr. was wrongfully accused of robbing a Sunglass Hut due to an alleged misidentification by the facial recognition system operated by Macy's. While in custody for ten days, he was sexually assaulted. He is now suing Macy's, EssilorLuxottica (Sunglass Hut's parent), and others, for $10 million.

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Alleged: Macy's and unknown developed an AI system deployed by Macy's, which harmed Harvey Murphy Jr.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
630
Report Count
3
Incident Date
2022-01-22
Editors
Daniel Atherton

Incident Reports

Man sues Macy’s, saying false facial recognition match led to jail assault
washingtonpost.com · 2024

A man was sexually assaulted in jail after being falsely accused of armed robbery due to a faulty facial recognition match, his attorneys said, in a case that further highlights the dangers of the technology's expanding use by law enforceme…

Facial recognition used after Sunglass Hut robbery led to man’s wrongful jailing, says suit
theguardian.com · 2024

A 61-year-old man is suing Macy’s and the parent company of Sunglass Hut over the stores’ alleged use of a facial recognition system that misidentified him as the culprit behind an armed robbery and led to his wrongful arrest. While in jail…

Man Jailed, Raped, and Beaten After False Facial Recognition Match, $10M Lawsuit Alleges
vice.com · 2024

In January of 2022, Harvey Murphy was arrested and thrown in jail while trying to get his driver’s license renewed at a local DMV. According to a $10 million lawsuit Murphy has since filed, a “loss prevention” agent working for a Sunglass H…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.