Why is Alvi Choudhury suing the police?

Alvi Choudhury is suing the police because facial recognition software mistakenly identified him as a burglar, leading to his wrongful arrest and detention.

What are the concerns about facial recognition technology?

Concerns include in-built biases within the technology, leading to higher false positive rates for individuals with Black and Asian faces compared to white faces.

Has facial recognition technology caused other false arrests?

Yes, similar incidents include a man wrongly identified as a stalking suspect and an innocent grandfather accused of shoplifting due to facial recognition errors.

Home / Crime and Justice / Facial Recognition Error: Man Suing Police After Wrong Arrest

Facial Recognition Error: Man Suing Police After Wrong Arrest

26 Feb

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Summary

An innocent man was arrested due to facial recognition software matching him to a burglar.
The software confused him for a suspect 100 miles away from his home.
He claims the technology has inherent biases against ethnic minorities.

Facial Recognition Error: Man Suing Police After Wrong Arrest

Alvi Choudhury, 26, is pursuing legal action against Thames Valley Police and Hampshire Constabulary after being wrongfully arrested due to a facial recognition error. The software incorrectly matched him to a £3,000 burglary suspect in Milton Keynes, a town 100 miles from his home in Southampton where he was working. Mr. Choudhury was detained for 10 hours before being released with no further action.

He contends that CCTV footage of the alleged crime depicted a younger individual, significantly different from him in appearance, with the only similarity being curly hair. Mr. Choudhury's face was on the police database due to a prior wrongful arrest in 2021. The UK police forces utilize a German algorithm processing approximately 19 million mugshots, with searches conducted around 25,000 times monthly.