Florida man wrongfully arrested after FACES facial recognition misidentification
Robert Dillon, a commercial crabber from Fort Myers, was arrested in 2023 for allegedly attempting to lure a child in Jacksonville Beach after Florida's FACES facial recognition system returned a 93 percent match between the suspect and Dillon's photo, despite him living over 300 miles away. The ACLU filed a lawsuit alleging the arrest was wrongful and that police failed to investigate exculpatory evidence, including Dillon's distinctive facial scars and lack of presence in the city.
What happened
On November 2, 2023, a man approached a girl under 12 at a McDonald's in Jacksonville Beach and attempted to lure her away from her parents; she refused and the man left before police arrived.
A Jacksonville Beach police officer sent cell phone photos of the McDonald's surveillance footage to surrounding agencies that November. A sergeant with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office ran the images through FACES, Florida's facial recognition system, and returned a match to Robert Dillon with a score of 93 percent.
Eight months later, Dillon was arrested at his home and held overnight. A manager at the McDonald's had told investigators the suspect was a regular customer she had seen multiple times, and Dillon had never visited Jacksonville Beach, living hundreds of miles away.
Reported impact
Dillon was arrested at his home in front of his wife, held overnight in a cold cell, and transported in a caged, unlit van. He pledged the title to his truck to make bond.
The arrest came during peak stone crab season, causing him to fall behind on rent and nearly lose his home. His mug shot remained online for nearly a year until a TV reporter intervened to have it removed.
Dillon told police he received a call from Officer Scott O'Connell in which the officer "accused me over and over again of a heinous crime that I knew I didn't commit." He says the incident "haunted me for months" and that he no longer feels comfortable talking to children.
Index analysis
The FACES system returned a 93 percent match score, which the algorithm uses to represent how much two images look alike, not how likely it is that they show the same person.
Dillon has distinctive scars from his hairline down to his nose from a skin cancer surgery. He told CBS News that when he saw his photo side by side with the photos of the suspect, he noted "The scars are nowhere near alike."
A search of license plate readers for two vehicles registered to Dillon covering the days around the incident turned up no results, suggesting Dillon's vehicles were not in Jacksonville Beach.
Governance controls
According to the complaint, several facts that pointed away from Dillon and exculpatory evidence regarding his location and appearance never reached the judge who signed the warrant for his arrest.
After a phone call with Officer O'Connell, Dillon contacted his local police department, worried he was being scammed. He claims that both Jacksonville Beach and his local police told him the call was "against protocol or policy."
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.