JACKSONVILLE BEACH — Robert Dillon filed a federal lawsuit in 2024 against the Jacksonville Beach Police Department, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, and Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri. The lawsuit alleges Dillon was wrongfully arrested and prosecuted due to an incorrect facial recognition match in an attempted child luring investigation.
The incident that led to the investigation occurred on November 2, 2023, at a McDonald's restaurant in Jacksonville Beach. An unknown man approached an unaccompanied girl under age 12 and asked her to leave with him. A sheriff's office sergeant ran cellphone photographs of surveillance footage from the incident through the Faces system. The facial recognition algorithm returned a 93 percent match probability identifying Dillon, who is a commercial crabber, from the footage. The Faces system is operated by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office and has been available to other law enforcement agencies since at least 2001. The photograph entered into the system was a low-quality screen grab taken with a cellphone rather than a direct digital upload.
Dillon lives in Fort Myers, Florida, over 300 miles from Jacksonville Beach, and he told investigators he had never visited Jacksonville Beach. Investigator Scott O'Connell searched license plate reader data for vehicles registered to Dillon. This data indicated that none of Dillon's vehicles were in Jacksonville Beach during the time surrounding the incident. The lawsuit alleges O'Connell omitted this negative license plate reader data from the arrest affidavit. A McDonald's employee identified Dillon from a six-person photo lineup, stating the suspect was a regular customer. The lawsuit further alleges O'Connell did not challenge the employee's identification or inform the magistrate of the low-quality nature of the source photograph when seeking the warrant.
A judge signed an arrest warrant in July 2024. Dillon was subsequently arrested at his home in August 2024. He was detained overnight and released after pledging the title to his truck as bond. Dillon pleaded not guilty in October 2024, and the State Attorney's Office dropped all charges shortly afterward. Investigator O'Connell received a promotion within the Jacksonville Beach Police Department by the end of 2024.
The American Civil Liberties Union, on Dillon's behalf, filed the lawsuit in federal district court in Fort Myers. The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages and a court order requiring the agencies to overhaul facial recognition policies. "Over a year later, I'm still picking up the pieces of my life, all because the police relied on this dangerous technology instead of doing their jobs and actually investigating." Dillon said. Nate Freed Wessler, deputy director of the speech, privacy, and technology project at the ACLU, said, "These Florida police departments owe it to Mr Dillon to make amends and to take serious steps to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else." Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters stated, "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."