Alvi Choudhury, a 26-year-old software engineer from Southampton, is seeking damages from Thames Valley Police after a flawed facial recognition system led to his wrongful arrest for a burglary that occurred 100 miles away in Milton Keynes. Choudhury, who had never visited the city, was handcuffed at his home and detained for nearly 10 hours before being released at 2am.
The arrest followed a match made by automated facial recognition software used by Thames Valley Police, which compared CCTV footage of a burglary suspect with police mugshots. Choudhury claims the suspect in the footage appeared “10 years younger” with different features, including lighter skin, no facial hair, and a larger nose. He believes his arrest was based on racial bias, stating, “I just assumed that the investigative officer saw that I was a brown person with curly hair and decided to arrest me.”
UK police forces use a facial recognition algorithm procured by the Home Office from German company Cognitec, conducting around 25,000 monthly searches against 19 million mugshots. Home Office-commissioned research revealed in December that the technology produces higher false positive rates for black (5.5%) and Asian (4.0%) faces compared to white faces (0.04%) at certain settings. Police and crime commissioners have warned of “concerning in-built bias”.
Despite the discrepancies, Choudhury was held in custody. He provided evidence of work meetings in Southampton on the day of the crime but was not released until hours later. His neighbours witnessed the arrest, and his father was left anxious. Choudhury is now unable to work the following day and fears the arrest record could affect his security clearance for government contracts.
Thames Valley Police admitted the arrest “may have been the result of bias within facial recognition technology” but declined to escalate the issue, stating it was already under strategic review. A police spokesperson denied the arrest was unlawful, citing a human visual assessment that matched Choudhury to the suspect. However, Choudhury said officers at the Hampshire police station laughed when he questioned the arrest.
Choudhury is calling for greater transparency on wrongful arrests involving facial recognition technology. He fears his mugshot, now stored in the police database from a previous wrongful arrest in 2021, could trigger further errors. “In my head, if a brown person in Scotland robs a bank are they going to come and arrest me?” he said.
