Florida Man Sues Police Over Wrongful Arrest Driven by Faulty Facial Recognition
Lawsuit claims officers ignored license plate data and alibi, leading to two-month prosecution before charges were dropped
Robert Dillon has initiated legal proceedings in the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida against the City of Jacksonville Beach, several police officers, and sheriffs, alleging wrongful arrest and malicious prosecution. The lawsuit centres on an incident in August 2024, where police relied on a 93 per cent facial recognition match from the FACES database to identify Dillon as a suspect in an attempted child luring case at a McDonald’s. The complaint asserts that Corporal Scott O’Connell withheld exculpatory evidence, specifically license plate reader data indicating Dillon’s vehicles were not in the vicinity and Dillon’s own alibi.
Dillon, a 52-year-old resident of Fort Myers, was arrested at his home in front of his wife and held overnight. He was prosecuted for over two months before charges were dismissed. The lawsuit argues that police allowed an error-prone artificial intelligence system to substitute for a proper investigation, building a case to confirm the algorithm’s result rather than testing it against evidence that would have cleared him.
The legal action names the City of Jacksonville Beach, Jacksonville Beach Police Corporal Scott O’Connell, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, and Sergeant James Walters of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. The complaint states that the wrong facial identification match came from the Face Analysis Comparison and Examination System (FACES), a centralized database maintained by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.
According to the filing, O’Connell concealed critical information from the magistrate who issued the arrest warrant. This included license plate reader data showing neither of Dillon’s vehicles was detected in Duval County during the relevant period, as well as Dillon’s own denial of being in Jacksonville Beach. The affidavit also failed to disclose that the police department’s own policy states facial recognition results are inherently unreliable and do not constitute probable cause.
Dillon is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Hoguet Newman Regal & Kenney law firm. They are seeking financial damages and systemic reforms regarding the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement. The ACLU noted that Dillon is one of 15 known people in the United States to have suffered a similar wrongful arrest due to faulty facial recognition technology.
