A Tennessee grandmother who spent six months in jail after facial recognition tech falsely linked her to a North Dakota bank fraud investigation now wants compensation for what happened. Angela Lipps is suing the City of Fargo and a Fargo Police Department detective for $10 million over the incident, which led to the loss of her home, car, and dog.
In July 2025, a team of US Marshals arrested 50-year-old Lipps in Tennessee at gunpoint while she was babysitting four young children. She was booked into the county jail in Tennessee as a fugitive from justice wanted in North Dakota.
$10 million isn’t enough.
It alleges that Detective Lucas Heck proceeded with charges despite knowing that Lipps lived in Tennessee, had never visited North Dakota, did not match the physical description of the suspect captured on surveillance footage, and had no unexplained funds linking her to the thefts.
If proven true, this seems like a slam dunk win for the victim.
I wonder if this egregiousness would also expose Detective Heck to personal liability bypassing his qualified immunity so that he could be sued directly too.
I wonder if this egregiousness would also expose Detective Heck to personal liability bypassing his qualified immunity so that he could be sued directly too.
In the U.S.? That would mean the police would be accountable for their actions. Can’t have that.
For the love of god can we please just ban facial recognition? Why is no one even talking about this?
Remember something like 200,000,000 IDs were found leaked online from the U.S. and Canada. Meaning exactly what happened to her could now happen to any of those people…
The article states the false match came off the fake ID used, not even the surveillance footage showing she was there.
This new season of Fargo is a crossover with Black Mirror
You go, Granny!
I love it when these cases come to light, and even to this day have some hope that the bad press, and expense of this lawsuit will incur some change in behavior from the city and police department. I know, pretty naive, right? Go get 'em Ms. Lipps, take the money and run.
“loss of her home, car” poor lady…
“and bog” Get the torches, men! We’re going hunting.
Aggregious
Egregious, unless you were going for that plus aggression, which is appropriate.
Aggreeegssious
Anti-Gregarious
My favorite dinosaur.
