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Police in Louisiana reportedly relied on an incorrect facial recognition match to secure warrants to arrest a Black man for thefts he did not commit.
Randal Reid, 28, was in jail for almost a week after the false match led to his arrest, according to a report published Monday on NOLA.com, the website of the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate newspaper. Reid told the newspaper that he had never even been to Louisiana:
Local police pulled over Reid on Nov. 25 as he drove on Interstate 20 in DeKalb County, Georgia, headed to a late Thanksgiving celebration with his mother, he said.
"They told me I had a warrant out of Jefferson Parish. I said, 'What is Jefferson Parish?,'" Reid said. "I have never been to Louisiana a day in my life. Then they told me it was for theft. So not only have I not been to Louisiana, I also don't steal."
Reid was booked into the DeKalb County jail as a fugitive but was let go on Dec. 1, a jail official said.
Reid's lawyer, Tommy Calogero, said that Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office detectives "tacitly" admitted the error and rescinded the warrant, the report said. "I think they realized they went out on a limb making an arrest based on a face," Calogero said.
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