CHARLOTTE — Jalil Richardson, a Charlotte resident, was wrongfully arrested after being misidentified by artificial intelligence facial recognition technology in a vehicle theft case he did not commit. Charges against him were dropped after he spent months incarcerated in North Carolina and Florida.
A deputy with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office used AI facial recognition to match a suspect from surveillance video and a fake Georgia identification to Richardson with 85 percent accuracy, leading to an arrest warrant. The investigation began after a man in Jacksonville, Florida, contacted law enforcement upon discovering his newly purchased car had been stolen. Surveillance footage was recovered from the parking lot where the transaction occurred, and the buyer told authorities the seller had provided a fake Georgia ID.
Richardson was arrested at his home in Charlotte and held in the Mecklenburg County Jail for one month before being extradited to Florida, where he remained for nearly two months. “There was no proper investigation done to even reach out to me or to see if I was even in Florida. He just automatically put a warrant out for my arrest,” Richardson said. He stated he has never been to Florida.
Richardson’s attorney presented time sheets proving he was at work 400 miles away when the car was sold. The man who reported the theft later identified Richardson in a lineup. “I want to say racial profiling. The guy said it was a guy with dreads and a big nose, and then they picked me out of a lineup of guys that look nothing like me,” Richardson said.
Prosecutors dropped the case a full year after the initial investigation began. While incarcerated, Richardson lost his job, his home, and custody of two of his children. “I sat in there for over 50 days. In the most worse jail ever. It’s very traumatizing and unbelievable. I lost everything,” he said.
Richardson is now struggling to find employment because his mugshot remains online despite the dismissal of charges. “I’m not sure how I’m going to bounce back from this one. It’s a lot. I’m trying to take it one day at a time and get any help and any resources that I can,” he said.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office stated, “Facial recognition technology is used as one tool among many available to investigators. In this case, it was one tool, but certainly not the only tool, which lent to the probable cause determination that Mr. Richardson was the perpetrator of these crimes.”