AI Facial Recognition Injustice! American Grandmother Locked Up in Prison 1200 Miles Away for Six Months, Police Offer No Apology

The Fargo police in North Dakota arrested and detained a 50-year-old grandmother who had never left Tennessee solely based on AI facial recognition results, holding her for nearly six months. Bank records eventually proved she was at home 1,200 miles away buying cigarettes and ordering pizza at the time of the incident. As a result, she lost her house, car, and pet dog, and to this day, the police have not apologized.

(Background: AI and Law Enforcement Collisions: Who Suffers the Most?)
(Additional context: Science Popularization | What Is Decentralized Digital Identity (DID)?)

Table of Contents

Toggle

• Armed Arrest: Taken as a “Fugitive” While Babysitting at Home
• First Court Appearance After 108 Days, Police First Questioning After Five Months
• Released on Christmas Eve, but Lost Everything
• Police Chief Refuses to Comment, Case Still Under Investigation

Angela Lipps, 50, is a mother of three and grandmother to five grandchildren. She has lived her entire life in north-central Tennessee, never flown, and only visited nearby states. But last summer, her life was turned upside down due to a mistaken AI facial recognition software error.

Armed Arrest: Taken as a “Fugitive” While Babysitting at Home

According to Grand Forks Herald, on July 14, 2025, a team of U.S. federal marshals stormed into Lipps’ home in Tennessee, armed, while she was caring for four young children. She was detained as a “North Dakota fugitive” and imprisoned without bail.

It’s terrifying. That image keeps replaying in my mind.

Lipps said, “I’ve never been to North Dakota, I don’t know anyone there.”

The incident stemmed from a series of bank fraud investigations. A woman used a forged U.S. Army ID to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars from multiple banks. To identify the suspect in surveillance footage, police used AI facial recognition software, which pointed to Angela Lipps.

The detective in charge later compared Lipps’s social media photos and Tennessee driver’s license, writing in the charging documents: “Based on facial features, body type, hairstyle, and hair color, Lipps is suspected to be the suspect.”

She was charged with four counts of impersonation and four counts of theft. However, police never contacted her for verification.

First Court Appearance After 108 Days, Police First Questioning After Five Months

Lipps waited in a Tennessee jail for 108 days before North Dakota police came to pick her up. On October 30, she was transferred to Fargo, North Dakota, and appeared in court for the first time the next day.

Her defense attorney, Jay Greenwood, immediately requested access to bank records. It wasn’t until December 19 that Fargo police conducted a face-to-face interview with Lipps at the Cass County Jail—over five months after her detention.

Bank records clearly showed that at the time police claimed she committed the crime in Fargo, her account was in Tennessee, where she was depositing Social Security benefits, buying cigarettes at a gas station, ordering pizza, and using Cash App to call Uber Eats…

Greenwood said, “If your only evidence is facial recognition results, maybe you should check a little more.”

Released on Christmas Eve, but Lost Everything

On December 24, five days after police questioned her, the case was officially dismissed, and Lipps was released. But she immediately found herself in cold weather, dressed in summer clothes, penniless, on the streets of Fargo.

“I was wearing summer clothes, no coat, and it was freezing outside with snow on the ground. I was so scared. I wanted to leave but didn’t know how to get home.”

Fargo police did not pay for her return trip. A local defense lawyer paid for her hotel and meals over Christmas. The next day, Adam Martin, founder of the nonprofit F5 Project, drove her to Chicago, from where she eventually returned to Tennessee.

Nearly half a year of wrongful imprisonment caused Lipps to lose her house, car, and even her dog. But to this day, Fargo police have not apologized to her.

Police Chief Refuses to Comment, Case Still Under Investigation

Local media WDAY News repeatedly tried to arrange an interview with Fargo Police Chief David Zibolski for a week, but were refused. Later, during the chief’s retirement press conference, a reporter asked, “Why was Lipps detained for five months, and no one from Fargo police ever talked to her?” The chief replied, “Thank you for your question, but I won’t discuss that today.”

Ironically, Fargo police stated that the bank fraud case is still under investigation and no arrests have been made.

This incident highlights the risks of AI facial recognition technology in law enforcement, where algorithms become the sole basis for conviction, lacking basic human verification procedures, potentially destroying innocent lives overnight.