In the photo series, Dillon’s face “was surrounded by five fillers – chosen to resemble Mr. Dillon, not the suspect,” so “Dillon, almost by definition, became the person in the array who was judged by the McDonald’s manager to most closely resemble the suspect,” the lawsuit states. The lawsuit states that O’Connell did not display the photo array to the victim.
The lawsuit says the 93 percent figure is a confidence score, which is “a measure of digital proximity between two mathematical templates” and “not a measure of the probability that the two images depict the same person.” The lawsuit says facial recognition algorithms vary depending on how they are designed and trained, making it difficult to determine what the scores mean.
“An officer presented with a ‘93% match’ from an AI-powered system has no way to evaluate the basis of that score, no way to assess whether confidence in the system is warranted, and no frame of reference to understand what ‘93%’ actually potentially means,” the lawsuit says.
Impact of arrest on life and work
The lawsuit states that Dillon was self-employed as a commercial crabber and was arrested during a particularly lucrative time of year for his business. He did not 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 “he did not want to be in public for fear of being confronted as a suspected child abductor,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit says Dillon fell behind on his monthly rent and returned to work facing the possibility of losing his home. “Community members still contact him publicly to ask about the case,” it added. “He no longer feels comfortable befriending children. No law enforcement agency has ever apologized or admitted error.”
The ACLU press release quoted Dillon as saying that he “will never get over how terrified and anxious I was, wondering if I would ever be able to get home to my wife and daughter.” Dillon said that police “relied on this dangerous technology instead of doing their job and actually investigating.”
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office declined to comment when contacted by Ars today. We contacted Jacksonville Beach Police and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office and will update this article if we hear back.
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