Fargo, North Dakota, sued over alleged AI facial recognition error

Angela Lipps, a 50-year-old woman from Tennessee, has filed a lawsuit against the city of Fargo, North Dakota, and its police department following her wrongful detention. Lipps alleges she was arrested at gunpoint in July 2025 and spent 108 days in a Tennessee jail after authorities relied on an inaccurate facial-recognition match to extradite her.

The lawsuit claims that investigators used a photograph from a fraudulent identification card to conduct searches via Clearview AI, rather than utilizing surveillance footage. While Clearview AI specifies that its results should only be treated as potential investigative leads, the complaint alleges that Fargo police presented the match as a confirmed identification without independent verification.

The investigation originated from a bank fraud case in Fargo and West Fargo involving the use of counterfeit identification in early 2025. Lipps, who had no ties to the crime or the state of North Dakota, was eventually cleared of all charges after being extradited.