{ "meta": { "exportedAt": "2026-09-22T19:33:26.756Z", "formatVersion": 2, "selection": { "q": "aclu", "system": "", "harm": "", "context": "", "country": "", "role": "", "relation": "", "evidence": "", "year": "2024", "response": "lawsuit", "severity": "", "verification": "", "view": "incidents", "sort": "added" }, "totalIncidents": 1, "coverage": { "cases": 1, "countries": 1, "languages": 1, "unknownLocation": 0, "locationPending": 0, "unknownLanguage": 0, "unknownDate": 0, "lawsuits": 1, "regulatory": 0, "minors": 0, "coreRelations": 0, "contextualRelations": 1, "mixedRelations": 0, "unknownRelations": 0, "relationPending": 0, "relationUnknown": 0 }, "countingNote": "Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.", "affectedCountNote": "Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.", "source": "NOPE Incident Tracker", "url": "https://nope.net/incidents", "license": "CC BY 4.0" }, "incidents": [ { "id": "2026-dillon-faces-wrongful-arrest-florida", "caseFacts": { "claims": [ { "id": "c1", "status": "corroborated", "evidence": [ { "locator": "'took pictures of the screen with his cell phone… low resolution… partially shadowed and off-axis'; '93 percent confidence'.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" }, { "locator": "Warrant based on the FR hit + 'a statement from a restaurant employee who picked his photo out of a lineup'; 'police called Dillon in 2023, he denied involvement citing skin-cancer scars'.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s3" } ], "assertion": "The warrant rested on a 93%-confidence FACES result obtained from low-resolution cell-phone photos of the restaurant's surveillance screen (partially shadowed, off-axis) plus a restaurant employee's photo-lineup identification; police had called Dillon in 2023 and he denied involvement, citing skin-cancer scars.", "causal_attribution": "The evidentiary basis is the complaint's account, carried by two chains; whether '93%' was system-generated or an investigator's characterization is unverified (the suit says the system 'spit out' his photo as a 'possible match')." }, { "id": "c2", "status": "corroborated", "evidence": [ { "locator": "'arrested Aug 2024 in Fort Myers'; 'more than two months later, prosecutors dropped the charges'; 'it took an entire year… to take down his mug shot and expunge the arrest'.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" }, { "locator": "Arrest bodycam 'outside his San Carlos Park home' via Gulf Coast affiliate; the Dillon interview ('I don't wish this on my worst enemy').", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s2" }, { "locator": "'charges… dropped… in October 2024'; 1 night jail, bonded out pledging his truck's title.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s3" } ], "assertion": "Dillon was arrested at his San Carlos Park home in August 2024, spent one night in jail and bonded out pledging his truck's title; prosecutors dropped the charges in October 2024 after work-alibi evidence; the arrest took about a year to expunge, with his mugshot lingering online.", "causal_attribution": "The custody and expungement timeline is consistent across three chains." }, { "id": "c3", "status": "corroborated", "evidence": [ { "locator": "'suit in M.D. Fla. vs. city of Jacksonville Beach + officers/officials incl. Sheriff T.K. Waters'.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" }, { "locator": "Suit 'includes the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, which oversees the use of the AI facial recognition technology across Florida'.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s2" }, { "locator": "ACLU attorney Nathan Wessler interview; defendants: Jacksonville Beach PD + Jacksonville and Pinellas County sheriffs' offices.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s3" } ], "assertion": "The ACLU filed a federal lawsuit in the week of 8 June 2026 in the Middle District of Florida against the city of Jacksonville Beach, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters and the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, seeking damages and policy safeguards.", "causal_attribution": "The suit's existence and parties are carried by three chains; the exact filing date within the week of 8 June is not pinned in the inspected sources." }, { "id": "c4", "status": "documented", "evidence": [ { "locator": "PCSO response passages ('patently false'; 'never \"matches\"'; 'rests solely with any officer').", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s2" } ], "assertion": "The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office responded that a training-failure claim 'is patently false', that 'facial recognition results are never \"matches\"', and that liability 'rests solely with any officer who did so'.", "causal_attribution": "The agency's position is quoted directly and preserved as contrary evidence." }, { "id": "c5", "status": "reported", "evidence": [ { "locator": "'one of at least 14 people arrested since 2019'.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" }, { "locator": "'one of 15 known people'.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s3" } ], "assertion": "The ACLU counts Dillon as at least the 14th known person wrongfully arrested since 2019 from police reliance on facial recognition (Reason, 11 June); a later WUSF attorney interview puts the count at 15 known.", "causal_attribution": "The advocacy count is attributed to the ACLU; the two figures are recorded as stated on their dates." } ], "effects": [ { "label": "wrongful felony arrest on a 93% facial-recognition hit, with a year-long expungement fight", "claim_id": "c2", "direction": "negative" } ], "sources": [ { "id": "s1", "url": "https://reason.com/2026/06/11/aclu-sues-after-facial-recognition-falsely-identifies-florida-man-as-a-child-abductor/", "kind": "news_report", "access": "read", "language": "en", "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-15 (11 Jun 2026, Joe Lancaster).", "independence_group": "reason" }, { "id": "s2", "url": "https://abcnews.com/GMA/News/man-sues-law-enforcement-alleging-ai-facial-recognition/story?id=133810835", "kind": "news_report", "access": "read", "language": "en", "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-15 (12 Jun 2026, Hipos & Yu).", "independence_group": "abc-news" }, { "id": "s3", "url": "https://www.wusf.org/courts-law/2026-06-18/ai-facial-recognition-tool-led-to-florida-man-wrongful-arrest-lawsuit", "kind": "news_report", "access": "read", "language": "en", "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-15 (18 Jun 2026, Lyden/Peddie).", "independence_group": "wusf" } ], "version": 1, "ai_roles": [ "institutional_use" ], "contexts": [ "justice" ], "unknowns": [ "The exact filing date within the week of 8 June 2026 and the docket number are not pinned in the inspected sources.", "Whether the '93%' figure was system-generated or an investigator's characterization is unverified.", "The lineup procedure's details (who administered it and how) are only partly reported.", "The expungement's completion date is given only as 'about a year' after the arrest.", "The actual perpetrator of the 2023 luring attempt is not reported as identified." ], "geography": { "basis": "Event: the warrant (Jacksonville Beach) and the arrest (San Carlos Park / Fort Myers), Florida. Affected person: Dillon, Florida. Court: the felony charge (dropped) and the federal suit in the Middle District of Florida.", "court_countries": [ "US" ], "event_countries": [ "US" ], "affected_person_countries": [ "US" ] }, "publication": { "basis": "Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as an institutional automated-decision case (made_decision_about / made_claim_about): a facial-recognition hit treated as warrant-grade identification, documented by three independent chains including the ACLU's own attorney and the vendor agency's response. Dillon spoke publicly; the PCSO denial is preserved as contrary evidence.", "reviewed_on": "2026-09-15" }, "ai_involvement": { "basis": "The warrant rested on the FACES 93%-confidence result plus a lineup identification, per the complaint as carried by Reason and WUSF; the vendor (Pinellas County Sheriff's Office FACES) is confirmed by WUSF, and the PCSO's own response acknowledges its technology's role while rejecting liability.", "status": "supported" }, "person_relations": [ "made_decision_about", "made_claim_about" ] }, "name": "Florida: 93% facial-recognition hit led to Robert Dillon's arrest as an attempted child abductor; charges dropped, ACLU suit filed", "summary": "In August 2024, Robert Dillon, a 52-year-old self-employed commercial crabber from the Fort Myers area, was arrested at his San Carlos Park home on a third-degree felony warrant for the attempted luring of a child at a Jacksonville Beach McDonald's in November 2023 — a crime he had no part in. The warrant rested on a 93%-confidence result from FACES, the Face Analysis Comparison and Examination System maintained by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, run against low-resolution cell-phone photos of a surveillance screen, plus a restaurant employee's photo-lineup identification. Dillon spent a night in jail and bonded out against his truck's title; prosecutors dropped the charges in October 2024 after work-alibi evidence, but it took about a year to expunge the arrest and remove his mugshot. In June 2026 the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit (M.D. Fla.) against Jacksonville Beach, the Jacksonville sheriff and the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, calling Dillon one of at least 14 known wrongful arrests from police reliance on facial recognition since 2019.", "incidentDate": "2024-08-01", "incidentEndDate": "2024-10-01", "incidentKind": "bounded_series", "incidentDatePrecision": "range", "exposurePattern": "single_interaction", "reportedDate": "2026-06-11", "aiSystem": "FACES (Face Analysis Comparison and Examination System), Pinellas County Sheriff's Office", "aiCompany": "Pinellas County Sheriff's Office (FACES centralized database)", "severity": "medium", "verificationStatus": "credible", "harmCategories": [], "harmOutcomes": [ "legal_harm", "reputational_harm", "psychological_distress" ], "harmOutcomeSummary": "Arrested at home on a child-abduction-class felony from a 93% facial-recognition hit on grainy screen photos; a night in jail, two months to clear the charge, and about a year to expunge the record and remove the mugshot.", "frameworkFacets": [], "causationStatus": "supported", "participantUsersAffectedMin": 0, "otherPeopleHarmedMin": 1, "affectedCountStatus": "exact", "affectedCountEvidence": "One documented harmed person: Dillon, the misidentified arrestee (three independent chains). The child in the underlying luring attempt is a victim of the actual perpetrator, not of the misidentification, and is not counted.", "victimAgeRange": "adult", "jurisdiction": "US", "platformType": "other", "outcomeType": "lawsuit_filed", "outcomeStatus": "ongoing", "primarySourceUrl": "https://reason.com/2026/06/11/aclu-sues-after-facial-recognition-falsely-identifies-florida-man-as-a-child-abductor/", "primarySourceLabel": "Reason (11 Jun 2026, Joe Lancaster) — complaint-based account: the screen photos, the 93% hit, the arrest, the expungement, the suit", "firstPublishedAt": "2026-09-15T10:27:54.71948+00:00", "scopeVersion": "facts-v3", "tags": [ "made-decision-about", "made-claim-about", "facial-recognition", "wrongful-arrest", "justice", "florida", "aclu" ] } ] }