The "mix-up" occurred because there was an ID with no picture on it. So, Apple assumed it was him - with no corroborating evidence to that. They then flagged their AI to look for him, not comparing it to pictures/video of the actual perpetrator, and called the police when he came in.
>...and a little police work easily led to clearing the person's name of the charge
True but there's a couple of problems with this:
1) He can never answer "no" on a questionairre of whether or not he's been arrested before. Depending on how strict employers are, this could prevent him from even being considered for employment.
2) There's an actual potential he lost his car, job, place to live, etc. while waiting to be cleared. We don't have a time-frame for this, so it's anyone's guess, but it's a safe bet that his employment, alone, wouldn't have been safe (e.g.: no call, no show).
>I hope cameras make catching the correct person easier, to avoid this type of policing failures.
The policing failure,as you refer to it, was actually a failure on Apple's part and not the part of the police.