Black Girl Kicked Out of Skating Rink Because Facial Recognition Software Failed

Lamya Robinson had never been to the Riverside Arena skating rink in Livonia, but the African American teen was denied admission because she was misidentified by the facility's facial recognition software.

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Why Was the Girl Banned?

Robinson was flagged because the software identified her as a patron that had gotten into an altercation with someone a few months ago.

The girl's mother, Juliea Robinson, likens the move with racial profiling.

"To me, it's basically racial profiling," she said. "You're just saying every young Black, brown girl with glasses fits the profile and that's not right."

Juliea tells Fox 2 Detroit she and her husband Derrick Robinson are considering legal action against the skating rink.

Facial Recognition Software Coming Under Fire

There are currently 35 organizations involved with a campaign calling for retailers to discontinue the use of facial recognition software.

According to Data 4 Black Lives, Lowes and Macy's are using the technology while Walmart, Kroger, Home Depot, Target, and others are not.

Tawana Petty, who heads Data 4 Black Lives, says the technology is flawed.

"Facial recognition does not accurately recognize darker skin tones," Petty said. "So, I don't want to go to Walmart and be tackled by an officer or security guard, because they misidentified me for something I didn't do."

The skating rink issued a statement to Fox 2, saying that Lamya's image was a 97 percent match with the other teen who had been involved in the earlier incident. They apologized for not looking further into the situation.