Man sues Florida cops over arrest spurred by “93% match” in facial recognition

In the photo array, Dillon’s face was “surrounded by five fillers—chosen to resemble Mr. Dillon, not the suspect,” so “Dillon became, almost by definition, the person in the array who most closely resembled the suspect” recalled by the McDonald’s manager, the lawsuit said. O’Connell did not display the photo array to the victim, the lawsuit said.

The 93 percent figure is a confidence score, which “is a measurement of digital proximity between two mathematical templates” and “not a measurement of a probability that the two images depict the same person,” the lawsuit said. Facial recognition algorithms vary based on how they were designed and trained, making it difficult to determine what the score means, the lawsuit said.

“An officer presented with a ‘93% match’ from an AI-powered system has no way to evaluate the basis for that score, no way to assess whether the system’s confidence is warranted, and no frame of reference for understanding what ‘93%’ actually means in probabilistic terms,” the lawsuit said.

Arrest’s effect on life and work

Dillon was self-employed as a commercial crabber and was arrested during a particularly lucrative time of the year for his occupation, the lawsuit said. He didn’t work for about a month because he “was unable to concentrate on anything other than the pending charges and the continued public availability of his mugshot” and “did not want to be in public for fear of being confronted as a suspected child abductor,” the lawsuit said.

Dillon fell behind on his monthly rent and returned to work when faced with the possibility of losing his home, the lawsuit said. “Community members still approach him in public to ask about the case,” it said. “He no longer feels comfortable being friendly to children. No law enforcement agency has ever apologized or acknowledged the error.”

The ACLU press release quoted Dillon as saying that he “will never get over how terrified and worried I was, wondering if I’d ever go home to my wife and daughter again.” Dillon said police “relied on this dangerous technology instead of doing their jobs and actually investigating.”

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office declined to comment when contacted by Ars today. We contacted the Jacksonville Beach Police and Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office and will update this article if we receive any response.