In the photo series, Dillon’s face was “surrounded by five filler characters, chosen to look like Mr. Dillon, not the suspect,” so “Dillon became, almost by definition, the person in the series who most resembled the suspect,” as recalled by the McDonald’s manager, according to the lawsuit. O’Connell did not show the set of photographs to the victim, according to the lawsuit.
The 93 percent figure is a confidence score, which “is a measure of the digital proximity between two mathematical templates” and “not a measure of the probability that the two images represent the same person,” the lawsuit says. Facial recognition algorithms vary depending on how they were designed and trained, making it difficult to determine what the score means, according to the lawsuit.
“An officer presented with a ‘93% match’ from an AI-powered system has no way to evaluate the basis for that score, has no way to evaluate whether the system’s confidence is justified, and has no frame of reference to understand what ‘93%’ really means in probabilistic terms,” the lawsuit says.
The effect of arrest on life and work
Dillon was self-employed as a commercial crabber and was arrested during a particularly lucrative time of year for his occupation, according to the lawsuit. He did not work for about a month because he “could not 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 an alleged child abductor,” the suit says.
Dillon fell behind on his monthly rent and returned to work facing the possibility of losing his home, according to the lawsuit. “Community members still approach him in public to ask him about the case,” he said. “He is no longer comfortable being friendly with children. No law enforcement agency has apologized or acknowledged the mistake.”
The ACLU press release quoted Dillon as saying that “I will never get over how terrified and worried I was, wondering if I would ever return home to my wife and daughter.” Dillon said police “relied on this dangerous technology instead of doing their job and investigating.”
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office declined to comment when contacted by Ars today. We have reached out to Jacksonville Beach Police and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office and will update this article if we hear back.
