A Tennessee woman, Angela Lipps, 50, has filed a federal lawsuit seeking $10m in damages, alleging that Fargo police improperly relied on an artificial intelligence (AI) facial recognition system to falsely accuse her of bank theft.
Ms Lipps was arrested at gunpoint by US marshals in July 2025 and subsequently jailed for six months. She was held without bail for almost four months awaiting extradition to North Dakota, where she was detained for approximately two more months.
The charges, which included four counts of unauthorized use of personal identifying information and four counts of theft, were eventually dropped. Her lawyer provided bank records proving she was in Tennessee when the fraud occurred in Fargo.
The lawsuit names the city of Fargo and police detective Lucas Heck as defendants. It alleges that a west Fargo police investigator used AI facial recognition software, which returned Ms Lipps's social media photo as a potential lead, despite her not resembling the suspect in surveillance footage and never having been to North Dakota.
Ms Lipps's complaint further alleges that the Fargo Police Department (FPD) lacked policy, training, and supervision regarding officers' use of facial recognition technology. She maintains she was unlawfully arrested, imprisoned, and maliciously prosecuted.