Featured Image Credit: YouTube/@EWUBodycam
Newly released bodycam footage has revealed the moment an innocent man was arrested after artificial intelligence made a horrible mistake.
The man in question was placed under arrest when he was mistakenly identified by AI facial recognition as being someone who had been banned from a casino.
However, unbeknownst to the police, he was completely innocent.
The incident took place back in September 2023 when a long-haul truck driver named Jason Killinger was detained and later arrested at the Peppermill Casino in Reno, Nevada.
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Despite repeatedly providing his identity to the casino security, the police believed him to be someone else.
In the court filings, it stated that Killinger was mistaken for Michael Ellis, a man who had previously been banned from the casino.
While the man gave security his driver’s license which clearly showed his image and name, the staff believed it to be a fake ID and the police were called to the scene.
In the police report at the time, the officer wrote that Killinger had ‘conflicting identification’ and ‘lacked satisfactory evidence’ to prove his identity.
Upon being arrested, the authorities took Killinger back to the local police station where he was held for 11 hours before being released.
A wrongful arrest lawsuit has since been filed in the US District Court for the District of Nevada, which claims that the man suffered bruising and shoulder pain after being handcuffed for around four hours.
Now, the bodycam footage, which has been published to YouTube, shows the police officer reviewing his ID and the record of Michael Ellis from the casino, remarking how the AI facial recognition system put the men as a 99.9% match.
Killinger was later released after his identity was confirmed using fingerprint verification.
Many people have taken to social media to share their reactions to the clip, with one user taking to YouTube to write: “Worst part about this is the officer's first instinct is that AI is infallible. We're f***ed.”
Another said: “The cop really thought it was more plausible this guy had a buddy at the DMV create a fake VALID ID so he could trespass at a casino than another guy looked like him.”
A third person commented: “Bro left that casino with a lawsuit that will win him more money than any slot machine.”
And a fourth added: “Bro was gifted a lawsuit from heaven, hope he gets the big bucks.”
