Police Arrest Man After Police National Database AI Mistakes His Image, Release Him Without Charge

Alvi Choudhury, a 26-year-old software engineer, says he was wrongly arrested at his Southampton home on 7 January.

“- Published A man arrested after a mistaken image match by police has said officers laughed about the lack of resemblance and said he should not have been in custody”

BBC

Police linked a five-year-old custody image of him on the Police National Database to CCTV from a burglary in Milton Keynes, 80 miles away.

BBC

He was held for more than nine hours and released without charge.

Choudhury told reporters that the person on the CCTV looked younger and of a different South Asian background (Pakistani) than him (Bangladeshi).

He said he had not known the old custody image from a 2021 Portsmouth detention was still held on the database.

BBC

Choudhury said officers laughed while he was in custody and were reported to have told him they would not have arrested him because the CCTV image did not look like him.

“- Published A man arrested after a mistaken image match by police has said officers laughed about the lack of resemblance and said he should not have been in custody”

BBC

Thames Valley Police apologised for the distress caused and emphasised that a retrospective facial-recognition match provided intelligence but did not itself determine the arrest decision.

Note on sources and limitations: this summary is based solely on the single BBC article provided.

No additional West Asian, Western alternative, or other mainstream sources were supplied, so perspectives and further details beyond the BBC account cannot be added or corroborated here.

BBC