Fort Myers Man Sues After AI Match Leads to Arrest in Jacksonville Beach Child Luring Investigation

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Robert Dillon says a grainy image from a Jacksonville Beach McDonald's changed his life. The 52 year old commercial crabber has filed a federal challenge claiming artificial intelligence driven AI matching software pointed police toward the wrong man and led to his arrest for a crime he did not commit.

Roughly 300 miles separated Dillon's home in Fort Myers from the Jacksonville Beach restaurant where a child luring complaint was reported in August 2024. According to the ACLU of Florida, an AI assisted AI matching software system returned Dillon as a possible match after detectives analyzed surveillance imagery despite his claim that he lacked ties to the municipality.

Dillon alleges officers built their arrest warrant around the AI matching software finding while overlooking information that pointed away from him. The federal challenge states that license plate reader records did not place his vehicles near the restaurant and that he told detectives he had never traveled to the shoreline town.

Security recording sits at the center of the federal challenge. The legal challenge alleges the AI matching software search relied on a low quality photograph captured from recorded video rather than a direct digital image from the recording alone.

Dillon was arrested at his home in front of relatives and later secured release on bond. Prosecutors eventually dropped the criminal charge, but the federal challenge argues the damage lingered through lost income, public exposure of his mugshot and months spent defending himself against the allegation.

The federal challenge names the Jacksonville Beach Police Department, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office and individual officers. Pinellas County operates the FACES system that detectives used during the child luring pursuit.

A witness at the restaurant reportedly described the suspect as a regular customer. Dillon's attorneys argue that description should have raised immediate questions because he lived hours away on Florida's Gulf Coast.

Absent any public apology identified in the legal challenge, Dillon continues seeking damages through federal court. The filing also asks for changes designed to reduce future arrests linked to incorrect AI matching software findings.