JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — New details are emerging in the case of a North Carolina man who spent more than 50 days in jail after authorities identified him as a suspect in a Jacksonville crime he did not commit.
The case began with a report of a stolen vehicle and surveillance video captured at a Publix on Baymeadows Road.
Jalil Richardson said investigators never properly verified whether he was even in Florida before identifying him as a suspect.
“There was no proper investigation done, um, to even reach out to me or to see if I was even in Florida,” Richardson said.
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The State Attorney’s Office said an 85% facial recognition match and two eyewitness identifications were enough to establish probable cause against Richardson.
However, prosecutors later dropped the case after evidence showed he was hundreds of miles away in North Carolina at the time of the crime.
“And I sat in there for over 50 days in the most worst jail ever,” Richardson said.
The State Attorney’s Office told Action News Jax it has identified two cases in which AI facial recognition technology used by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office helped develop the wrong suspects. One was Richardson’s case. The other involved Robert Dillon, whose case was also dropped for similar reasons.
“The technology is simply too dangerous for law enforcement to be using at all,” said Adam Schwartz, privacy litigation director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Schwartz, who has practiced law for 30 years, pointed to a list compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union documenting wrongful arrests nationwide linked to facial recognition errors.
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“More than a dozen innocent people have been arrested by police because of errors with face recognition,” Schwartz said. “These errors, majority, are people of color. The largest group of them is Black people.”
Schwartz believes Richardson is at least the 14th person nationwide to be wrongfully arrested because of facial recognition misidentification.
Prosecutors dropped Richardson’s case last week after his attorney provided timesheets showing he was at work in North Carolina when a stolen vehicle was sold in Jacksonville.
We’ve been asking JSO about the 85% match threshold and the accuracy of the AI system used to help identify suspects.
JSO provided the following statement:
“Facial recognition software is just one tool in a large toolbox for investigators. Our detectives and officers use any and all available resources to solve cases. It is incorrect to assume that facial recognition was the deciding factor in Mr. Richardson’s arrest.
“Calling the arrest the result ‘police AI misidentification’ is a catchy headline but does not provide accurate context.
“Facial recognition software was used to develop a possible suspect from surveillance footage.
“After that step, the victim chose Mr. Richardson out of a photographic lineup to include other potential suspects.
“At a separate time, officers showed a photographic lineup to the victim’s brother, who was there for the transaction. That witness also identified Mr. Richardson as the perpetrator.
“Both the victim and witness spent approximately 30 minutes with the suspect in the case.
“With that and other information, officers were able to obtain a warrant for Mr. Richardson’s arrest. A judge later found that there was enough probable cause for the arrest.
“The State Attorney’s Office later came up with the nolle pros disposition.
“The similarity score is a probability rating of how similar the patterns are between the photo uploaded and the photo the system brings back. Image quality and angle of the face can alter the scores. We reject any assumption that the technology discriminates against any specific skin tones.”
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Richardson has called the case racial profiling. He said the arrest cost him his job, his home and custody of two of his children.
“I’m not sure how I’m gonna bounce back from this one, you know. It’s a lot. I’m just taking it one day at a time,” Richardson said.
Action News Jax again asked JSO what percentage threshold investigators consider sufficient to pursue a lead. The agency said it is working to provide answers.
We will continue monitoring the use of the facial recognition system and whether any additional wrongful arrests are linked to the technology.
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