People walk down Jacksonville Beach on Oct. 30, 2025. (Photo by Jay Waagmeester/Florida Phoenix)
A Fort Myers man and the ACLU of Florida are suing Jacksonville Beach for relying too heavily on an artificial intelligence program that fingered him as a suspect in a now-dropped 2023 child luring investigation.
The ACLU said in a 66-page federal lawsuit that Robert Dillon had been arrested “for a crime he never committed in a city he’d never been to.”
Dillon filed suit against the Jacksonville Beach Police Department and the Jacksonville and Pinellas sheriff’s offices Wednesday in a case centering around what the ACLU calls a “faulty facial recognition match” in 2023 and an arrest eight months later.
The now-dropped charges claimed that Dillon, a commercial crabber from Fort Myers, tried to lure a child at a McDonald’s in Jacksonville Beach, five hours from his home.
“The night I spent in jail after they arrested me for a crime I did not commit still haunts me to this day. I 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 in a news release.
Dillon’s attorneys explain that law enforcement put security camera footage into facial recognition technology operated by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, comparing the image to millions of photos in a database to find matches. It returned a 93% match to an image of Dillon.
“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. “Florida police must implement safeguards and ensure this never happens to anyone else, because until they do, nobody is safe.”
The 2023 investigation was centered around the idea that the suspect was a regular at the McDonald’s and that witnesses picked a picture of Dillon out of a lineup after the technology flagged him.
The lawsuit seeks damages for Dillon’s pain, suffering, humiliation, embarrassment, emotional distress, anxiety, and loss of enjoyment of life, as well as bond costs and the costs of his defense attorney and attorneys for this case, plus lost income.
“Community members still approach him in public to ask about the case. He no longer feels comfortable being friendly to children. No law enforcement agency has ever apologized or acknowledged the error,” the complaint reads.
Dillon’s attorneys allege violation of his Fourth Amendment right to a protection from unreasonable search and seizure plus malicious prosecution.
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“Robert’s case illustrates the stakes when police deploy AI-assisted identification tools without adequate safeguards. Digital information can be a powerful tool for law enforcement, but its proliferation, supercharged by the AI boom, carries profound Fourth Amendment implications,” said Steve Silverberg, counsel at Hoguet Newman Regal & Kenney LLP, representing Dillon.
The suit complains that the police department did not consult McDonald’s ordering records or cellphone records to pin down a suspect.
“The investigating officer treated that algorithmic output as a near-certain identification, omitted critical exculpatory evidence from his arrest warrant application, and failed to pursue routine investigative steps that would have immediately excluded Mr. Dillon as a suspect,” the complaint states.
The suit goes into detail about institutional policies governing use of the technology to identify suspects.
“This case is about what happens when police let an error-prone artificial intelligence system stand in for an investigation,” the complaint reads.
The ACLU listed various cases across the country that resulted in false arrests “materially identical” to Dillon’s.
Facial recognition in policing is getting state-by-state guardrails
According to the suit, at least 20 jurisdictions nationwide have banned the technology, listing a handful of politically deep blue areas including Minneapolis, Vermont, and San Francisco.
The City of Jacksonville Beach told the Phoenix Wednesday that it does not comment on pending litigation.
In the lawsuit, the ACLU cites previous comments from Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters saying, “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 because that’s not how it works.”
by Jay Waagmeester, Florida Phoenix
June 10, 2026
by Jay Waagmeester, Florida Phoenix
June 10, 2026
A Fort Myers man and the ACLU of Florida are suing Jacksonville Beach for relying too heavily on an artificial intelligence program that fingered him as a suspect in a now-dropped 2023 child luring investigation.
The ACLU said in a 66-page federal lawsuit that Robert Dillon had been arrested “for a crime he never committed in a city he’d never been to.”
Dillon filed suit against the Jacksonville Beach Police Department and the Jacksonville and Pinellas sheriff’s offices Wednesday in a case centering around what the ACLU calls a “faulty facial recognition match” in 2023 and an arrest eight months later.
The now-dropped charges claimed that Dillon, a commercial crabber from Fort Myers, tried to lure a child at a McDonald’s in Jacksonville Beach, five hours from his home.
“The night I spent in jail after they arrested me for a crime I did not commit still haunts me to this day. I 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 in a news release.
Dillon’s attorneys explain that law enforcement put security camera footage into facial recognition technology operated by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, comparing the image to millions of photos in a database to find matches. It returned a 93% match to an image of Dillon.
“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. “Florida police must implement safeguards and ensure this never happens to anyone else, because until they do, nobody is safe.”
The 2023 investigation was centered around the idea that the suspect was a regular at the McDonald’s and that witnesses picked a picture of Dillon out of a lineup after the technology flagged him.
The lawsuit seeks damages for Dillon’s pain, suffering, humiliation, embarrassment, emotional distress, anxiety, and loss of enjoyment of life, as well as bond costs and the costs of his defense attorney and attorneys for this case, plus lost income.
“Community members still approach him in public to ask about the case. He no longer feels comfortable being friendly to children. No law enforcement agency has ever apologized or acknowledged the error,” the complaint reads.
Dillon’s attorneys allege violation of his Fourth Amendment right to a protection from unreasonable search and seizure plus malicious prosecution.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
“Robert’s case illustrates the stakes when police deploy AI-assisted identification tools without adequate safeguards. Digital information can be a powerful tool for law enforcement, but its proliferation, supercharged by the AI boom, carries profound Fourth Amendment implications,” said Steve Silverberg, counsel at Hoguet Newman Regal & Kenney LLP, representing Dillon.
The suit complains that the police department did not consult McDonald’s ordering records or cellphone records to pin down a suspect.
“The investigating officer treated that algorithmic output as a near-certain identification, omitted critical exculpatory evidence from his arrest warrant application, and failed to pursue routine investigative steps that would have immediately excluded Mr. Dillon as a suspect,” the complaint states.
The suit goes into detail about institutional policies governing use of the technology to identify suspects.
“This case is about what happens when police let an error-prone artificial intelligence system stand in for an investigation,” the complaint reads.
The ACLU listed various cases across the country that resulted in false arrests “materially identical” to Dillon’s.
Facial recognition in policing is getting state-by-state guardrails
According to the suit, at least 20 jurisdictions nationwide have banned the technology, listing a handful of politically deep blue areas including Minneapolis, Vermont, and San Francisco.
The City of Jacksonville Beach told the Phoenix Wednesday that it does not comment on pending litigation.
In the lawsuit, the ACLU cites previous comments from Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters saying, “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 because that’s not how it works.”
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. AP and Getty images may not be republished. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of any other photos and graphics.
Jay covers education for the Florida Phoenix. He previously worked for the Iowa Capital Dispatch and the Iowa State Daily. He grew up in Iowa and is a graduate of Iowa State University.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
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© Florida Phoenix, 2026
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The Phoenix is a nonprofit news site that’s free of advertising and free to readers. We cover state government and politics with a staff of five journalists located at the Florida Press Center in downtown Tallahassee.
We’re part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. (See full republishing guidelines.)
© Florida Phoenix, 2026
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