Nationwide — Jalil Richardson, an African American man from Charlotte, North Carolina, was arrested in connection with a Florida car theft while he was working 400 miles away. He spent months in jail before authorities eventually dropped the charges linked to faulty AI-based identification.
According to WSOC TV, Richardson said police came to his home in Charlotte and arrested him without prior notice. He spent about a month in Mecklenburg County Jail before being extradited to Florida. He then remained in a Jacksonville jail for roughly 50 more days while his attorney tried to prove his innocence.
The case began on April 2, 2025, when a car was sold in a Publix parking lot in Jacksonville through Facebook Marketplace. A buyer paid $30,000 for the vehicle, but later discovered it had been reported stolen and alerted police. Investigators reviewed surveillance footage from the area and also found a fake Georgia ID allegedly used during the transaction.
A deputy later used facial recognition software to match Richardson to the surveillance images, producing an 85 percent similarity score. Based on that result, along with photo lineup identifications from the buyer and his brother, police secured a warrant for his arrest.
Richardson strongly denied any involvement and questioned how he was identified. He said the description given by the suspect did not match him and suggested the case involved racial bias. “I want to say racial profiling. The guy said it was a guy with dreads and a big nose, and then they picked me out of a lineup of guys that look nothing like me,” he said.
His attorney later presented time records showing Richardson was at work in Charlotte at the exact time the Florida transaction took place. Despite that evidence, investigators and prosecutors continued the case, and he remained in custody during the review process.
Richardson described the arrest and detention as deeply damaging. “There was no proper investigation done to even reach out to me or to see if I was even in Florida. He just automatically put a warrant out for my arrest… And I sat in there for over 50 days in the most worst jail ever.”
After nearly a year, the State Attorney’s Office dropped the charges, which included grand theft and dealing in stolen property. Richardson said the case cost him his job, home, vehicle, and custody of two of his children.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office defended its use of facial recognition, saying it was only one part of the investigation and not the sole basis for the arrest. Privacy advocates, however, warned that AI identification has contributed to multiple wrongful arrests across the United States, particularly involving Black individuals.