Florida lawsuit alleges wrongful arrest after AI facial recognition error

A Florida man is suing several law enforcement agencies for his arrest and prosecution for allegedly luring a child after he was wrongly identified using faulty AI facial recognition software. According to the Jacksonville Beach police department, an algorithm returned a 93% probability that Robert Dillon was the man caught on security cameras at a McDonald's in the town attempting to persuade an unaccompanied girl, aged younger than 12, to leave with him. Dillon, however, lives in Fort Myers, more than 300 miles and a five-hour drive away, and told detectives he had never been to Jacksonville Beach in his life. The case was dismissed and charges dropped last year over the August 2024 incident. Now the 52-year-old has filed a lawsuit against the police department, the Jacksonville sheriff's office, and Bob Gualtieri, the sheriff of Pinellas county, whose agency maintains and operates the Faces (Face Analysis Comparison and Examination) system and leases it to other law enforcement.