Robert Dillon, a 52-year-old resident of Fort Myers, has filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida following his August 2024 arrest for allegedly attempting to lure a child. Police arrested Dillon after an artificial intelligence facial recognition system identified him as a 93 percent match to a suspect based on a low-quality photograph taken of a computer screen displaying McDonald's surveillance footage. The lawsuit alleges that officers relied on the faulty algorithm match to build a case against Dillon while concealing exculpatory evidence and failing to conduct a proper investigation. Dillon lives more than 300 miles from Jacksonville Beach and had never visited the location, with a police search of a licence plate reader database finding no evidence that he was in the area when the alleged crime occurred. The defendants named in the filing include the City of Jacksonville Beach, Jacksonville Beach Police Corporal Scott O’Connell, and Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters.

Background: Facial Recognition in Policing

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