JACKSONVILLE — Prosecutors in Jacksonville, Florida, dropped charges against Jalil Richardson and released him in June 2025. Richardson had been held for over 80 days following an arrest based on a facial recognition match.

Police in Jacksonville arrested Richardson, who lived in Charlotte, North Carolina, after facial recognition software flagged him as an 85 percent match to a suspect. Investigators had used surveillance footage from a grocery store parking lot to run a suspect's image through the software.

Richardson was held in jail for 33 days in North Carolina before his extradition to Jacksonville. Following his transfer, he spent 53 additional days in a Jacksonville jail. Time cards later showed that Richardson was at his job when the suspect in question sold a stolen car in Jacksonville.

After his release, Richardson stated that the arrest and confinement resulted in personal losses. He said that the experience cost him his job, his house, and custody of two of his children.

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office stated it is incorrect to assume facial recognition was the deciding factor in Richardson's arrest. Investigators administered a photo lineup to both a witness and the witness's brother in the case.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has identified at least 15 individuals arrested since 2019 due to faulty facial recognition matches. Adam Schwartz, the privacy litigation director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, commented on this technology. "The technology is simply too dangerous for law enforcement to be using at all." Schwartz said.