Tennessee grandmother jailed after AI face recognition error links her to fraud

Tennessee grandmother jailed after AI facial recognition error links her to fraud | Tennessee | The Guardian Skip to main content Skip to navigation Skip to navigation Fargo police identified Angela Lipps as a suspect and later released her on Christmas Eve. Photograph: Google Maps View image in fullscreen Fargo police identified Angela Lipps as a suspect and later released her on Christmas Eve. Photograph: Google Maps Tennessee Tennessee grandmother jailed after AI facial recognition error links her to fraud Angela Lipps spent nearly six months in jail after AI software linked her to a North Dakota bank fraud case Marina Dunbar Thu 12 Mar 2026 21.29 CET Last modified on Thu 12 Mar 2026 22.25 CET Share Prefer the Guardian on Google A Tennessee grandmother says she is trying to rebuild her life after an incident of mistaken identity by an artificial intelligence (AI) facial recognition system tied her to a North Dakota bank fraud investigation. Angela Lipps, 50, spent nearly six months in jail after Fargo police identified her as a suspect in an organized bank fraud case using facial recognition software, according to south-east North Dakota news outlet InForum . Lipps told the outlet she had never been to North Dakota and did not commit the crimes. Lipps, a mother of three and grandmother of five, said she has lived most of her life in north-central Tennessee. She had never been on an airplane until authorities flew her to North Dakota last year to face charges. Family of Tumbler Ridge shooting victim sues OpenAI alleging it could have prevented attack Read more In July, US marshals arrested Lipps at her Tennessee home while she was babysitting four children. She said she was taken away at gunpoint and booked into a county jail as a fugitive from justice from North Dakota. “I’ve never been to North Dakota, I don’t know anyone from North Dakota,” Lipps told WDAY News . She remained in a Tennessee jail for nearly four months without bail while awaiting extradition. She was charged with four counts of unauthorized use of personal identifying information and four counts of theft. According to Fargo police records obtained by WDAY News, detectives investigating bank fraud cases in April and May 2025 reviewed surveillance video of a woman using a fake US army military ID to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars. The officers allegedly used facial recognition software to identify the suspect as Lipps. A detective reportedly wrote in court documents that Lipps appeared to match the suspect based on facial features, body type and hairstyle. Lipps told WDAY News that no one from the Fargo police department contacted her before the arrest. Authorities in North Dakota did not transport Lipps from Tennessee until the end of October, 108 days after her arrest, according to InForum. She appeared in a North Dakota courtroom the next day. Her attorney, Jay Greenwood, told the outlet: “If the only thing you have is facial recognition, I might want to dig a little deeper.” Lipps was later released on Christmas Eve after Greenwood obtained her bank records and presented them to investigators. The records showed Lipps was more than 1,200 miles away in Tennessee at the time investigators said the fraud occurred in Fargo. But Lipps said Fargo police did not pay for her trip home, leaving her stranded. Local defense attorneys helped cover a hotel room and food on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and a local non-profit, the F5 Project, was able to help her return to Tennessee, InForum reported. Lipps is now back home but says the experience has had lasting consequences. While jailed and unable to pay bills, Lipps lost her home, her car and her dog, she said. She also told WDAY News no one from the Fargo police department had apologized. This is far from the first case of an AI error flagging the wrong suspect . In October, an AI system apparently mistook a Baltimore high school student’s bag of Doritos for a firearm and called local police to tell them the pupil was armed. Taki Allen was sitting with friends outside the Kenwood high school in Baltimore when police officers with guns approached him, made him get on his knees, and handcuffed and searched him – finding nothing. Earlier this year, police arrested a man in the UK for a burglary in a city he had never visited after face-scanning software confused him with another person of south Asian heritage. Authorities had used automated facial recognition software which matched him with footage of a suspect in a £3,000 burglary 100 miles away. Explore more on these topics Tennessee North Dakota AI (artificial intelligence) US policing US crime news Share Reuse this content Most viewed Most viewed World Europe US news Americas Asia Australia Middle East Africa Inequality Global development