Facial Recognition Technology Helps Police Catch Suspect In Attack On Elderly Man

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- An elderly man is in critical condition with a serious brain injury after asking a fellow bus passenger to keep his voice down.

Prosecutors charged 23-year-old Leroy Davis-Miles with first-degree assault in the case.

According to the criminal complaint, the attack happened in broad daylight at the Chicago-Lake Transit Center on Wednesday. A 75-year-old man was punched just after getting off a bus. He then fell and hit his head on the pavement.

Suspect Davis-Miles got away, but surveillance -- and a critical piece of technology -- helped authorities track him down. Right after the attack, police started looking through bus and transit center video. Once they found the assault on camera, they used facial recognition software to identify Davis-Miles as the suspect.

Dr. Manjeet Rege is an artificial intelligence expert and professor at University of St. Thomas. He says law enforcement can use things like old mug shots in their data base to search for a match.

"Earlier you were relying on human memory, human judgement, and now we're hoping computers can do a much better job at that," Rege said.

He says while there's less room for human error, there is still plenty of room for system errors.

"Any recognition system can be fooled into thinking this is the exact same person, but that might not be the case," he said.

In this case, police found clothing in Davis-Miles's home that matched his outfit on the surveillance video. And for now, Rege says double checking technology is critical.

"Just because this is a computer making a prediction does not mean that it is perfect," Rege said.

Davis-Miles is expected to make his first court appearance Tuesday reporting. Police are still investigating, and say they anticipate making more arrests.