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How This Detroit Man’s Lawsuit Could Change Police Use of Facial Recognition Technology Forever

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How This Detroit Man’s Lawsuit Could Change Police Use of Facial Recognition Technology Forever


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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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



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Detroit, MI

Vigil, protest held for Renee Nicole Good at Detroit’s Clark park

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Vigil, protest held for Renee Nicole Good at Detroit’s Clark park


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The name Renee Nicole Good bounced off the buildings of southwest Detroit as hundreds marched on the evening of Friday, Jan. 9, following Good’s fatal shooting by an immigration agent in Minneapolis earlier in the week. 

A candlelight vigil was held at 6 p.m. at the city’s Clark Park in memory of Good, before attendees took off marching down Vernor Highway. 

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As of 7:30 p.m., the mass crowd had reached Cavalry Street, about half a mile away from the park, and turned, yelling “What do we want? Justice ” and calling for ICE’s ousting from communities.

Good, 37, was in her car when she was shot in the head on Wednesday, Jan.7, by a federal immigration officer in south Minneapolis. She leaves behind three children, ages 6, 12 and 15.

The shooting was recorded by witnesses and heightened political and community tensions over federal immigration enforcement as part of President Donald Trump’s nationwide immigration operations. The Trump administration has since said the shooting was done in self-defense, USA TODAY reports.

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Protests have occurred in cities across the U.S. since Good’s death, including gatherings in Michigan, and additional demonstrations are scheduled throughout the weekend.

This is a developing story.



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Debating Mike McDaniel’s fit for Detroit Lions OC job

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Debating Mike McDaniel’s fit for Detroit Lions OC job


But we also can’t ignore the drastic fall-off from the Dolphins’ offense. Partially because of injuries to Tua Tagovailoa and Tyreek Hill over the past two seasons, the Dolphins have finished 22nd and 25th in scoring offense in 2024 and 2025, respectively. Injuries can be used as an excuse, but the greatest coordinators find a way through the adversity.

Beyond that, there are questions about his philosophical and schematic fit. While the Lions have built their offenses on grit and physicality, McDaniel seems to favor speed and finesse. But maybe that’s exactly what the Lions need. Detroit has two speedy players in Jameson Williams and Jahmyr Gibbs, who could probably be utilized more creatively, and it’s hard to imagine anyone better than McDaniel to do so.

McDaniel also has a very long coaching history with a lot of different coaching influences and schemes—including his closest coaching guru: Kyle Shanahan. The 49ers head coach has a scheme that is both more congruent with what the Lions do and much more adaptable.

On this EMERGENCY PODCAST, our crew debates the fit of McDaniel in Detroit, along with our thoughts on the Lions’ other known candidate: Commanders quarterbacks coach David Blough.

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Before that, Erik Schlitt, Ryan Mathews, and I discuss our biggest takeaways from Lions general manager Brad Holmes’ end-of-season press conference, including the future of David Montgomery, whether Holmes really took accountability for his mistakes, and our confidence in him moving forward.

You can catch our discussion in the embedded podcast below or on any podcasting platform you’d prefer. Just search “Pride of Detroit.”

You can also catch video of the show over on our YouTube pages. Here are the links:



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Tarik Skubal, Tigers can’t agree on 2026 salary. Here’s what happens

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Tarik Skubal, Tigers can’t agree on 2026 salary. Here’s what happens


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The Detroit Tigers and left-hander Tarik Skubal did not agree to terms on a one-year contract for the 2026 season before the 8 p.m. deadline Thursday, Jan. 8, to exchange salary figures in the arbitration process.

Skubal filed at $32 million; the Tigers filed at $19 million.

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It’s a difference of $13 million.

An arbitration panel will review the case during a hearing scheduled for late January or early to mid-February. The arbitrators must determine whether Skubal is worth more or less than the $25.5 million midpoint. If he’s worth more, they will select his $32 million proposal; if less, they will select the Tigers’ $19 million proposal. The panel isn’t allowed to choose a salary in between $19 million and $32 million.

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The Tigers operate as a file-and-trial club in salary arbitration under president of baseball operations Scott Harris, meaning there won’t be further negotiations with Skubal regarding a one-year contract. A multi-year contract could still be negotiated, but it’s highly unlikely.

Skubal – represented by agent Scott Boras – reaches free agency after the 2026 season. The 29-year-old is positioned to become the first pitcher in MLB history to receive a $400 million contract.

If the two sides were to reach an agreement before a hearing, it would likely be a one-year contract with a player option, thus maintaining Skubal’s path to free agency in the 2026-27 offseason.

The reigning back-to-back American League Cy Young winner was projected by MLB Trade Rumors to receive $17.8 million in his third and final year of salary arbitration. He previously earned $2.65 million in 2024, then $10.15 million in 2025.

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Why couldn’t the Tigers and Skubal agree on a salary for 2026?

The arbitration case for Skubal is unusually complex, thanks to a rarely used provision highlighted by ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Because Skubal has more than five years of MLB service time, he isn’t limited to comparing himself only to past arbitration-eligible players. Instead, he can compare himself to any player in baseball.

Those unique rights allow Skubal – who has five years, 114 days of service time – to point to MLB’s highest-paid pitchers (such as Max Scherzer’s $43.3 million per year from 2022-24 or Zack Wheeler’s $42 million per year from 2025-27), arguing that his elite performance warrants a salary in that range – not in the $17.8 million range, as projected by MLB Trade Rumors.

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That’s what pushed the Tigers and Skubal to an arbitration hearing.

[ MUST LISTEN: Make “Days of Roar” your go-to Tigers podcast, available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify) ]

The current record for the largest one-year arbitration contract belongs to outfielder Juan Soto, who agreed to $31 million with the New York Yankees for the 2024 season.

If Skubal wins the arbitration hearing, he will surpass Soto and claim the new record with his proposed $32 million salary. If Skubal loses, then he will earn the $19 million salary proposed by the Tigers.

There are two other arbitration records on the line.

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The highest-paid arbitration-eligible pitcher belongs to right-hander David Price, who earned $19.75 million with the Tigers in 2015 – his fourth year in the arbitration process as a Super Two qualifier. The largest raise for an arbitration-eligible pitcher belongs to right-hander Jacob deGrom, who surged from $7.4 million to $17 million – an increase of $9.6 million – with the New York Mets in 2019.

Those records for pitchers will belong to Skubal – but only if his proposed $32 million salary is selected by the arbitration panel. He will fall just short of the records if the panel selects the Tigers’ proposed $19 million.

Skubal is the best pitcher in baseball.

More notably, he is on a Hall of Fame trajectory.

In 2025, Skubal registered a 2.21 ERA with 33 walks (4.4% walk rate) and 241 strikeouts (32.2% strikeout rate) across 195⅓ innings in 31 starts. He made the All-Star Game for the second time in his six-year MLB career.

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Skubal became the first back-to-back AL Cy Young winner since right-hander Pedro Martínez in 1999-2000, leading the AL with a 2.39 ERA in 2024 and a 2.21 ERA in 2025.

The Tigers haven’t been to an arbitration hearing since right-hander Michael Fulmer in 2019.

Fulmer lost the case, receiving the Tigers’ proposed $2.8 million salary rather than his requested $3.4 million. Before that hearing, the Tigers hadn’t participated in an arbitration hearing since 2001 – and the Tigers haven’t lost a case since 2000.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

Listen to our weekly Tigers show “Days of Roar” every Monday afternoon during the season and Tuesday afternoon during the offseason on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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