Angela Lipps, a 50-year-old Tennessee resident, has filed a federal lawsuit seeking $10 million in damages against the city of Fargo and a police detective, alleging that improper reliance on artificial intelligence facial recognition technology led to her false arrest and prolonged detention.
Lipps was arrested at gunpoint by U.S. marshals at her Tennessee home in July 2025 while babysitting her neighbor’s children. She was transported to North Dakota and held without bail for approximately four months before facing additional detention of roughly two months in that state. She was ultimately charged with four counts of unauthorized use of personal identifying information and four counts of theft. The charges were subsequently dropped after her attorney provided bank records demonstrating she was in Tennessee when the fraud occurred in Fargo.
According to the complaint, a west Fargo police investigator utilized AI facial recognition software to identify bank fraud suspects. The system returned Lipps’s social media photograph as a potential lead, which was provided to detective Lucas Heck. The complaint alleges the facial recognition match originated from a fake identification used by a female suspect captured in surveillance footage, and that Lipps bore little physical resemblance to the actual suspect and had never traveled to North Dakota. The lawsuit contends that Heck falsely represented that facial recognition systems had identified Lipps and requested an arrest warrant without conducting adequate investigation or establishing sufficient probable cause.
The complaint further alleges that Fargo Police Department lacked adequate policy, training, and officer supervision regarding facial recognition technology use. Lipps claims she experienced traumatic jail conditions, loss of her residence and vehicle, missed family events including holidays and birthdays, and was denied access to medications and dentures while in custody. She was released on Christmas Eve with no transportation home.
Lipps’s attorneys argue the damages reflect the specific harm incurred. A Fargo government representative declined to comment on the pending litigation. The case raises questions about the appropriate use and limitations of artificial intelligence systems in criminal investigations.
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