SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) – Notre Dame’s Compton Family Ice Arena played host on Saturday night to a hockey match between the Pucks for Autism team and alumni of the Detroit Red Wings of the NHL.

This event is part Pucks for Autism charity games, in which the organization travels to various hockey arenas across the country to promote autism acceptance during the 2024-25 NHL season.

“Pucks for Autism is a 501(c)(3) charity that my husband and I started in honor of our son, Henry,” explained Eva Pheiffer. “From that, we have grown exponentially from being just a small tournament once a year. We now have our large tournament every year in June, but we also have several tournaments throughout the year, like this one where we raise money and donate to local charities or local facilities that also assist with special needs children and adults.”

Pucks for Autism welcomes players of all skill levels and abilities to join them for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play on NHL ice.

Proceeds from Saturday night’s game will benefit Camp Milhouse, which has deep roots here in Michiana as a residential camp for people with disabilities.

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It’s no secret that law enforcement’s use of facial recognition technology disproportionately affects Black people more often than it does any demographic group…and it’s been like that for years. But one city plans on making changes to how it uses the technology, thanks to the wrongful arrest of a Black man nearly six years ago.

Last month, along with agreeing to pay Robert Williams $300,000 in a settlement agreement, the City of Detroit agreed to revise how police use facial recognition to solve criminal cases, according to the Associated Press.

The Detroit police will now go back and look at all cases between 2017 and 2023 in which facial recognition was used and will notify a prosecutor if an arrest was made without evidence independent of the technology.

Robert Williams’ wrongful arrest

Williams was arrested in 2018 after someone stole watches from a store in the Detroit area. The only evidence Detroit Police had was an image from the store’s surveillance footage. Officers then sent the image to the Michigan State Police so they could run a search using face recognition technology, and what came up was an expired driver’s license photo of Williams, according to the lawsuit.

Although Williams said he was not the man in the image, Detroit police still used his photo to create a photo lineup and show it to a man who was not a witness to the crime and only saw the store’s surveillance footage.

Despite this, an officer, who has not been identified, still applied for an arrest warrant.

In April 2021, Williams filed a civil rights lawsuit against the detective, the city and the city’s chief of police with the help of the ACLU and the University of Michigan’s Law School’s Civil Rights Litigation Initiative.

More from the ACLU:

The lawsuit alleges that the detective, through his omissions in the warrant application, misled the magistrate judge, resulting in issuance of an arrest warrant without the required probable cause. It also alleges what discovery in Mr. Williams’ case and several more recent facial-recognition false arrests in Detroit have since made obvious: That the city lacked any policy for law enforcement use of face recognition technology at the time the technology was used in this case, and that Detroit failed to train its police officers on the dangers of misusing face recognition technology in their investigations.

Past examples of facial recognition affecting Black people

Even before Williams’ wrongful arrest, facial recognition technology had already been doing Black people dirty.

In 2018, 28 members of Congress, including six members of the Congressional Black Caucus, were falsely identified as suspects charged with a crime on Amazon’s facial recognition technology.

In December 2020, a Black man in New Jersey filed a lawsuit after he was wrongly identified as a suspect who shoplifted from a hotel gift shop. He spent 10 days in jail.

In July 2021, a Black girl was banned from a Michigan skating rink after facial recognition software misidentified her for a different Black girl who got in a brawl at the business on a prior date.

In August 2023, a pregnant Black woman was falsely identified and arrested as a carjacking thief in Detroit thanks to the technology.

It’s been almost two full years since the Detroit Lions traded tight end T.J. Hockenson to the Minnesota Vikings, and it’s probably fair to say that it worked out for both sides. The Lions got a 2023 second-round pick and 2024 third-round pick, while the Vikings got Hockenson, a 2023 fourth-round pick and a 2024 fourth-round pick. Detroit now has Sam LaPorta breaking records at the tight end position, while Hockenson is coming off his most productive year despite missing the final two games due to an injury.

This week, Hockenson made another appearance on the “Bussin’ with the Boys” podcast and was asked to reflect on the trade. He admitted, it didn’t come as a complete surprise at the time.

“There were a lot of articles coming out (about me potentially getting traded), because we were, I think, 1-6 at the time,” Hockenson said.

In the final year of his rookie contract, Hockenson knew the Lions were at a fork in the road regarding his future, so when the trade happened it wasn’t a shock (this matches what he said at the time, too).

At the time, Hockenson caught some flak in Detroit for this comment that he made, regarding an expectation to win and reach the playoffs:

“That’s really what we’re here to do is go somewhere and win some games. That’s kinda the first time I’ve been able to say that. So I’m pretty excited. I really am.”

Some took this as a shot against Detroit, and maybe it is. But it was also the truth, as the Lions were just 12-42-2 when Hockenson was there. Of course, the cruel irony for Hockenson is that since that trade, the Vikings are 14-13 (0-1 in the playoffs), while the Lions are 20-7 (2-1 in playoffs).

Still, Hockenson doesn’t seem to be holding too much resentment for Detroit’s sudden success.

“They’re still in the division, so you want to beat them and you want to win the division, but not (a) crazy (amount of bitterness),” Hockenson said. “You see it and you’re like, ‘What’s going on?’ You talk to people (in Detroit) and they’re just like, ‘It started clicking. It was nothing that you had (to do with it).’”

He later added:

“I was really happy for the boys that I used to play with. I was in it for a long time. It’s not fun to go out and play and not really have any success. For them to have some success, I was happy for the guys I played with.”

That said, he did admit he still gets a little more juiced for games against his former team.

Part of the reason Hockenson appears to be at peace with what happened is because he is genuinely happy to land with the Vikings organization.

“I was excited. It was a fresh start for me,” Hockenson said. “I knew I was going to play for coach (Kevin) O’Connell, who was a young coach. It was his first year, and he was 6-1 or something like that at the time. A really up-and-coming coach, and to be able to get around him, it was the best thing for me.

“God put me in the right place. I love Minnesota. I love the team, and it really starts at the top with K.O. and ownership. Those guys are incredible and it trickles down.”

You can watch the entirety of Hockenson’s answer to the question below: