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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Robert Booth and Mark Wilding

Facial recognition error prompts police to arrest Asian man for burglary 100 miles away

Alvi Choudhury.
Alvi Choudhury says: ‘In my head, if a brown person in Scotland robs a bank are they going to come and arrest me?’ Photograph: Sam Frost/The Guardian

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.

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