Reno Police Sued for Wrongful Arrests Using Facial Recognition Without Corroboration
A lawsuit filed in federal court alleges the Reno Police Department systematically arrested people based on casino facial recognition matches without corroborating evidence over years, affecting thousands. An officer admitted under oath that a specific arrest he made was wrongful and that the department's standard practice was to rely on facial recognition alone without further investigation.
What happened
In September 2023, Jason Killinger exited Peppermill Casino in Reno when the casino's facial recognition system flagged him as a '100 percent match' to a person banned from the property for falling asleep there. Officer Richard Jager arrested Killinger for trespassing based on the facial recognition match alone, despite Killinger presenting multiple forms of identification including a Real ID-compliant driver's license showing a different name than the banned individual.
A fingerprint check at Washoe County jail confirmed Killinger was not the banned person. In a January 2026 deposition, Jager admitted under oath the arrest 'never should have happened' and testified the Reno Police Department's practice was to arrest based on facial recognition without corroborating evidence.
Reported impact
Killinger spent 11 hours in custody. The lawsuit alleges this was not an isolated incident but part of a systemic practice, with Officer Jager stating he had made hundreds of arrests on this basis and the complaint claiming thousands of unlawful arrests were made over years using the same method.
Index analysis
The facial recognition system claimed '100 percent certainty' in its match, but facial recognition is probabilistic rather than determinative and cannot match a person with absolute certainty. Jager's arrest report falsely characterized Killinger as presenting conflicting identification, contradicting bodycam footage and court documents showing he offered to provide additional forms of identification.
Governance controls
The Reno Police Department had no policy requiring corroborating evidence beyond a facial recognition match before making an arrest. Jager consulted his supervisor, Sgt. Carl DeSantis, about the discrepancy in identification but proceeded with the arrest anyway.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.