AI Error Lands Tennessee Grandmother in Jail for 5 Months, Police Say 'We Were Not Aware'

A Tennessee grandmother, Angela Lipps, spent more than five months in jail after being wrongly linked to North Dakota crimes through an AI facial recognition tool. Despite never visiting the state, Fargo police identified her as a suspect.

A judge soon signed an arrest warrant, and she was taken into custody. Authorities acknowledged "a few errors" in the investigation and pledged changes to prevent repeats. However, officials have refrained from issuing a formal apology.

According to a statement from the Fargo Police Department, 50-year-old Angela Lipps from Tennessee was arrested on July 14 after police linked her to bank fraud cases in North Dakota. To her surprise, a warrant for her arrest had already been issued weeks earlier in Fargo, more than 1,000 miles from her home.

The chaotic chapter began after police reported several bank fraud incidents in and around Fargo. Frustrated with the cases, officers used facial recognition technology from a partner agency, along with other steps, to identify a suspect during their investigation process. Unfortunately, the system pointed to Lipps as a possible match.

Fargo Police Department Chief Dave Zibolski told CNN in an email, "At some point, our partner agency over at West Fargo purchased their own AI facial recognition system that we were not aware of at the executive level." He added, "we would not have allowed that to be used, and it has since been prohibited."

According to Zibolski, the West Fargo Police Department had used Clearview AI, a tool that scans billions of photos from the internet. As it flagged someone with features similar to Lipps, that information was shared with Fargo police, without proper investigation and checks into Lipps' background.

Eventually, a judge in North Dakota approved her arrest on July 1, with nationwide extradition. Lipps spent over three months in a Tennessee jail before being extradited. Court documents revealed that the 50-year-old faced serious charges, including felony theft.

Later, after being taken to Fargo, Angela Lipps' lawyer found bank records showing she was in Tennessee when the crimes occurred. Prosecutors were told this new evidence could prove her innocence, and on December 23, officials agreed to drop the charges for now to investigate further.

Angela Lipps was finally released on Christmas Eve 2025 after spending months in jail. Her lawyers said the experience has deeply affected her life. "The trauma, loss of liberty, and reputational damage cannot be easily fixed," they told CNN.

Her legal team is now examining why she was held so long when "exculpatory bank records were readily available." They said, "We believe that Angela’s lengthy detention was unnecessary and should have been avoided with a proper investigation by law enforcement."

Although police admitted investigation errors, they refrained from issuing a public apology for Lipps' trauma. At a press conference, Dave Zibolski said Fargo police will no longer "send or utilize information" from West Fargo's AI system because "it's their own system. We don't know how it's run or how it's overseen."

Instead, they would work with state and federal authorities "so that we can keep a closer eye on this evolving technology." When asked if the department plans to apologize to Lipps, Zibolski said, "At this juncture, we still don't know who's involved and who's not involved" in the fraud cases.

"What I can tell you, from what I know right now, is that the persons involved are also very upset by this, because they pride themselves on their thoroughness," he said. "No one wants to see someone detained, arrested unnecessarily."