this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2026
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Police arrested a man for a burglary in a city he had never visited after face scanning software deployed across the UK confused him with another person of south Asian heritage.

Alvi Choudhury, 26, a software engineer, was working at the home he shares with his parents in Southampton in January when police knocked on his door, handcuffed him and held him in custody for nearly 10 hours before releasing him at 2am.

Thames Valley police had used automated facial recognition software which matched him with footage of a suspect of a £3,000 burglary 100 miles away in Milton Keynes, according to documents shared with the Guardian by Liberty Investigates.

But the CCTV footage showed a noticeably younger man with different features apart from similar curly hair, said Choudhury, who was left confused about why he had been arrested.

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[–] RoidingOldMan@lemmy.world 89 points 3 days ago

Choudhury’s mugshot was held on the police system only because he had been wrongly arrested in 2021 when he had been attacked on a night out while at university in Portsmouth. The police released him with no further action. Now he has had a second mugshot taken he is afraid the automated system could trigger more wrongful arrests.

[–] wax@feddit.nu 41 points 3 days ago

Vibepolicing

[–] CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 65 points 3 days ago (2 children)

It’s established fact that these racial recognition systems do poorly with virtually any confounding factors, particularly darker skin colour.

10 hours. What the fuck.

[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 14 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

The danger of using a product/system for a purpose it wasn't designed for or that didn't pass rigorous testing: poor reliability and serious errors.

[–] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 13 points 3 days ago
[–] decapitae@sh.itjust.works 74 points 4 days ago (1 children)

RIP actual police work - hello khakis dashboard for just-us

[–] zr0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 3 days ago

Palantir is wonderful software.

[–] zr0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 56 points 3 days ago

“Age verification”

[–] runsmooth@kopitalk.net 61 points 3 days ago

So police did not have to flag the file as AI generated, and don’t prioritize the review of these allegations by an actual human?

Did anyone tell that man he was unlawfully detained and has a civil claim against the government who knowingly and recklessly detained an innocent person?

[–] Akh@lemmy.world 43 points 3 days ago

Sue the facial recognition company under product liability

[–] Sumocat@lemmy.world 29 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Thames Valley police admitted to Choudhury the arrest “may have been the result of bias within facial recognition technology”. No, the bias wasn’t within the technology.

[–] Gathorall@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

But the police would have just arrested the nearest ethnic otherwise so it is totally the AI's fault and the manufacturer should compensate travel expenses. /s

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Sounds like the police in Britain has automated arresting people for the "crime" of walking on the street whilst not looking white enough.

Reference material

[–] usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca 6 points 3 days ago

Not too far away now

Please Hold

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (6 children)

Here's what I think the world needs.

Every citizen in every country gets 10 atomic bombs.

Ok so you falsely arrest this man. You don't release him now, because he'll just go get his atomic bombs.

But now his brother or his wife, or whomever, ALSO has atomic bombs. And they demand his release or else.

So NOW whenever anyone tries to do anything, they have to think. Will this make them use an atomic bomb?

And suddenly, police are a lot more careful. Corporations switch their gosls from profit, to citizen utopia. Can't make anyone mad ever.

And in a strange way, I find that to be far more peaceful. Nobody is an asshole or a bully anymore, because we'll ALL be blown up if one person snaps.

Maybe others are afraid of MAD. I was born into it. Raised in an environment where they say the russians could bomb us at anytime, and almost did multiple times.

I was raised to have nuclear bomb drills where they sound a siren, and thousznds of kids rushed into underground bunkers. We had fire drills, and tornado drills, and atomic bomb drills.

I imagine the kids who are like 20 today, are almost immune to fear of public shootings, because they grew up in the school shooting drill days. These kids could walk into a warzone, and dodge bullets like NEO. But nobody would even shoot a gun if anyone anywhere could nuke you.

[–] theneverfox@pawb.social 15 points 3 days ago (2 children)

You know there's literally death cultists out there trying to bring on the end of the world, right? We'd probably make it 6 hours

[–] Danquebec@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 days ago

You're optimistic.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

looks around at a world run by pedophiles, fascists, and abusers

......yeah, but is that really the worst idea?

[–] theneverfox@pawb.social 3 points 3 days ago

It might be a terrible world, but it's the only one we have

If you want to leave, don't take out other people with you. I don't think you properly thought out the implications of your words, so I'll leave it at that

[–] EtnaAtsume@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago (1 children)

This is fucking insane and a terrible idea.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

nukes EtnaAtsume

[–] ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago (2 children)

What would you do about those with mental illness, Intellectual Disabilities, zealots, and children? In other words, people who may not have the capacity, or in the case of zealots, to make rational decisions.

[–] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I bet mental health services will be well-funded.

[–] ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Certainly, and I'm in support of all the things that would need to happen to prevent the world from exploding. I just wish it happened without the stress and threat of bombs.

[–] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It's very sad that some people need the threat of immediate personal physical violence to keep them from being controlling Nazi shitheads.

[–] ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

I'll second that.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

My children are fairly well behaved, and I would be nuked on day 1.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

This idea is either the best ever or the worst ever... Either humanity is saved or we are annihilated 2 seconds after giving every individual nukes.

Honestly, it's a coin toss.

[–] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Can I make one of mine a sidecar for a motorcycle? Even if I have Poor Impulse Control?

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 days ago

There was a short story where everyone got one legal murder