A Lee County man was wrongfully arrested last year after AI facial recognition technology used by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office got it wrong. Experts are now warning about the potential dangers of the technology.

The Jacksonville Beach Police Department said 51-year-old Robert Dillon allegedly tried luring a 12-year-old child in Jacksonville Beach back in November of 2023. According to a police report, Dillon was linked to a suspect caught on surveillance video in a Jacksonville Beach McDonald’s through the use of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office’s AI facial recognition technology.

Jacksonville Beach PD conferred with JSO, according to the report, and the technology found a 93% match between Dillon and the suspect using that technology. The report says police then provided a photo spread of Dillon and other similar-looking individuals to two witnesses. Both identified Dillon as the suspect.

However, the case would later be completely dropped. The state attorney’s office told Action News Jax the arrest will be wiped from Mr. Dillon’s record.

“Police are not allowed under the Constitution to arrest somebody without probable cause,” Nate Freed-Wessler with the American Civil Liberties Union would later tell Action News Jax. “And this technology expressly cannot provide probable cause, it is so glitchy, it’s so unreliable. At best, it has to be viewed as an extremely unreliability lead because it often, often gets it wrong.”

Freed-Wessler is the deputy director for the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. He was also part of the legal team that helped sue on behalf of Robert Williams – a Detroit man wrongfully arrested thanks to facial recognition similar to the technology used to identify Dillon. The Detroit Police department settled that case for $300,000 in damages, and implemented safeguards when using AI facial recognition in their investigations.

Freed-Wessler told Action News Jax that wrongful arrests using AI facial recognition are more common than many think, especially among people of color.

“It’s partly because of photo quality problems in low light situations, when the cameras are trying to identify darker skin people,” Freed-Wessler explained. “In fact, in almost all of the wrongful arrest cases around the country that we know of, it’s been black people who have been incorrectly, wrongfully picked up by police.”

Action News Jax sat down with Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters to discuss the use of AI facial recognition technology in Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office investigations. Sheriff Waters reassured the technology is simply a small piece of the investigative puzzle.

“If you came to me with a facial recognition hit and that was your probable cause, I would probably kick you out of my office because that’s not how it works,” Sheriff Waters explained. “And I can’t speak to [the Jacksonville Beach Police Department’s] investigation. I can tell you this, there better be a lot more that goes along with that to help make sure that we have the proper individual too.”

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However, Freed-Wessler believes this procedure wasn’t properly followed by Jacksonville Beach police in their investigation, adding that photo spreads based on a facial recognition match aren’t sufficient evidence to make an arrest.

“When this technology gets it wrong, it’s going to get it wrong with a face of somebody who looks similar to the suspect,” Freed-Wessler explained. “It’s no surprise that when police juice a lineup procedure with a doppelganger, with a lookalike, a witness is going to choose an innocent person.”

Now, the Jacksonville Beach Police Department tells Action News Jax the investigation is still open after Dillon was cleared of any wrongdoing, adding in part:

“We will not be commenting on this matter beyond stating that all warrant requests are submitted to the state attorney’s office. It is solely their decision whether or not to move forward with issuing a warrant.”

Action News Jax reached out to the state attorney’s office as well. A spokesman only confirmed Dillon was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Now, Dillon’s lawyer tells Action News Jax that he is seeking compensation, although he and Dillon declined interview requests.

Meanwhile Courtney Barclay, an AI policy expert at Jacksonville University, said law enforcement agencies across the nation will continue to use AI and facial recognition. Barclay outlined the need to always second-guess.

“Every industry is just now starting to scratch the surface of the potential of AI, how it can impact our society. Law enforcement is no exception,” Barclay said. “And so, again, we just want to be cognizant of the risks.”

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