Bloomington, Minnesota, has settled a lawsuit brought by Kylese Perryman, who spent five days in jail after police incorrectly identified him as a suspect in a 2021 robbery and carjacking investigation.
The agreement resolves the remaining claims against the city and requires changes to how Bloomington alerts other law enforcement agencies about suspects. Perryman will also receive a payment under the settlement. Hennepin County separately paid him $10,000 in 2024, while his case against Bloomington continued.
Perryman was arrested after surveillance images from a Walmart were used in a facial recognition search. The resulting lead pointed to Perryman, and investigators obtained an arrest warrant. His lawsuit alleged that police treated the software result as an identification without completing basic corroborating work.
Several pieces of evidence conflicted with the match. Perryman said home surveillance footage showed him at his residence when the crime occurred, and the person recorded at Walmart lacked tattoos visible on Perryman’s neck and arms. The charges were dismissed 52 days after his arrest, following five days in jail and 30 days on electronic home monitoring.
The ACLU of Minnesota and pro bono counsel represented Perryman. Manjeet Rege, director of the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence at the University of St. Thomas, said facial recognition produces an investigative lead rather than a positive identification.
The settlement follows a series of legal challenges over arrests linked to incorrect face matches. In Florida, the ACLU filed a separate wrongful-arrest lawsuit alleging that officers ignored contradictory evidence. Courts have also imposed stronger disclosure duties, including a New Jersey Supreme Court requirement that defendants receive information about police facial recognition searches.
Bloomington’s policy changes will govern the information the city supplies when notifying other agencies that a person is wanted. The case centered not on the mere use of facial recognition, but on the investigative steps taken after a possible match and the evidence officers relied on when seeking Perryman’s arrest.
Perryman said he hopes the settlement prevents other people from experiencing a similar arrest. The resolution ends litigation that began after the criminal case against him was dismissed and establishes revised procedures for Bloomington’s alerts to other law enforcement agencies.
Sources: CBS News Minnesota, ACLU of Minnesota
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
