In the series of photos, Dillon’s face was “surrounded by five fillers — chosen to resemble Mr. Dillon, not the suspect,” so “Dillon became, almost by definition, the person most closely resembling the suspect in the series,” the suit says. O’Connell allegedly did not show the victim a series of photographs.
The 93 percent figure is a confidence score that is “a measure of numerical proximity between two mathematical templates” and “not a measure of the likelihood that two images depict the same person.” Facial recognition algorithms vary in how they are designed and trained, making it difficult to determine what a score means, the lawsuit says.
“An officer presented with a ‘93% match’ from an AI-powered system has no way to assess the basis for that score, no way to assess whether the system is reliable, and no frame of reference to understand what ‘93%’ means in terms of probability,” he said.
Impact of arrests on life and work
Dillon allegedly engaged in commercial crabbing and was arrested at a particularly lucrative time of year. She didn’t work for about a month because she “couldn’t focus on anything other than the pending charges and the public exposure of her photo of the abduction” and “didn’t want to be in public for fear of being exposed as a child abduction suspect,” she said.
Dillon allegedly fell behind on his monthly rent and returned to work when he faced the prospect of losing his home. “Members of the community still approach him in public to ask about the work,” he said. “He no longer feels comfortable being friendly with children. No law enforcement agency has apologized or admitted wrongdoing.”
An ACLU press release quoted Dillon as saying he “will never forget how scared and worried I was about ever getting back to my wife and daughter.” Dillon said police are “relying 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’ve reached out to Jacksonville Beach Police and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office and will update this article if we hear back.
