Facial Recognition

He Spent Over 80 Days in Jail After Florida Cops Arrested Him on Faulty Facial Recognition

Police have arrested at least 15 people in recent years based on bad facial recognition hits.

Joe Lancaster | 6.30.2026 5:15 PM

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(Illustration: Midjourney)

Police in Florida arrested a man and held him in jail for nearly three months based on a bad facial recognition result. It's far from the first time such a thing has happened—in fact, it's at least the second time that the same sheriff's office was involved, according to Action News Jax.

In April 2025, a man in Jacksonville, Florida, purchased a car from someone he met in a grocery store parking lot. When he learned the car was stolen, he reported the crime to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. Using surveillance footage from the parking lot, investigators ran the suspect through facial recognition software, which flagged Jalil Richardson as an 85 percent match.

The case had problems. First and foremost, Richardson lived in Charlotte, North Carolina—400 miles away. Not only that, but time cards showed Richardson was at........

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