How Apple’s Find My app is costing US cities millions

apple:The Find My app has cost the city of Denver $3.76 million: Compensation and damages. In 2022, police in the city mistakenly raided an elderly woman’s home looking for a stolen truck and guns.
According to CNN, denver police They were looking for a stolen truck filled with guns, ammunition and cash. To do this, police used Apple’s Find My technology on another device iPhone: to locate the vehicle. However, the police chose the wrong house within a considerable area and rushed in to catch the thief.
As a result of the missing attack, the 78-year-old Ruby Johnson File a lawsuit against the police. As compensation, the city will pay Johnson a $3.76 million bonus.
Additionally, the defendant officers – Detective Gary Stubb and Sgt. Gregory Buschy – Also indicted as an individual. Denver police had previously cleared the pair of wrongdoing, but the jury disagreed.

How Apple’s Find My app works

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed the lawsuit on Johnson’s behalf. The lawsuit states that the raid was based on a “location ping purportedly coming from the iPhone’s Find My app, but the officers did not understand the location and were not trained to do so.”
According to the complaint, police relied on Find My pings from an iPhone 11 that may still be in the stolen truck. However, the area identified includes parts of six other properties in parts of four city blocks.
Johnson’s attorney said in a statement Tim McDonald “We are troubled by the lack of training or policy changes and hope the amount of the punitive damages will send a strong message that police departments must take residents’ constitutional rights seriously,” he said.
The ACLU and the jury concluded that the two police officers who ordered the raid had no reason to single out Johnson’s house for targeting.
In addition, the officers must each pay nearly $1.25 million in punitive and compensatory damages. A Denver District Court clerk noted that the city has not yet appealed the verdict.