According to multiple reports, the facial recognition system matched Choudhury to CCTV images of a burglar who stole £3,000 from a Buddhist meditation centre in Milton Keynes. Choudhury, who is of Asian descent, was arrested based on the automated match, but according to Choudhury, the system has been shown to return false matches 4% of the time among Asian faces. Thames Valley Police stated that the arrest was based on the investigating officers' own visual assessment following the initial automated match.
According to Daily Mail - Home, Choudhury described his anger at the arrest, noting that the suspect looked about ten years younger, had lighter skin, a bigger nose, no facial hair, different eyes, and smaller lips. He assumed the officer saw a brown person with curly hair and decided to arrest him. According to Daily Mail - News, Choudhury criticized the system's failure rate, saying no tech company would put a system into production with a failure rate of one in 25. He also expressed concern that the visual review by officers could involve racial discrimination.
Other false identifications have occurred. Midwife Rennea Nelson, six months pregnant, was falsely accused of shoplifting by a facial recognition system in a B&M store in Romford, Essex. According to Daily Mail - Home, Nelson described the incident as traumatising and degrading, as a staff member shouted at her in front of other customers. Anti-knife campaigner Shaun Thompson was stopped by police on February 3, 2024, after being flagged by live facial recognition near London Bridge. According to Daily Mail - Home, Thompson described being told he was flagged as wanted, but the officer could not specify what for. Thompson and privacy campaigner Silkie Carlo brought a High Court challenge against the Metropolitan Police's use of live facial recognition, arguing it breached privacy rights, but they lost the case.
The original crime was resolved when another man, Eduard Zlatineanu, 23, was arrested on the day of the crime and pleaded guilty five days after Choudhury's false arrest, according to Thames Valley Police. A second offender involved in the theft remains unidentified. Choudhury is now suing the police for compensation and an apology. According to Daily Mail - News, Choudhury said that if officers had done any actual detective work, they would have crossed him out straight away. He also claimed that upon release, police were laughing because the footage clearly showed two different people, and a TVP officer admitted she knew he wasn't the suspect before interviewing him.
Several unknowns remain: the specific facial recognition system used by Thames Valley Police has not been disclosed, the overall error rate across all demographics is unclear, and the compensation Choudhury is seeking has not been specified. It is also unknown what actions Thames Valley Police has taken to review or change their use of facial recognition after this incident.