{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-04T07:58:04.285Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"handcuffed","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"2026","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":2,"coverage":{"cases":2,"countries":2,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":0,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":1,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"coreRelations":0,"contextualRelations":2,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2026-brooklyn-center-border-patrol-facial-recognition-citizen-detention","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Paras 85-86, pages 30-31: 'and a U.S. citizen. ECF'; 'On January 9, 2026, Mr.'; 'was working at a house in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota'; 'Two immigration agents with “border patrol” on their vests drove past the house, made a U-turn'; 'license and REAL ID paperwork, but the agents asserted that the REAL ID papers were'; 'fake and that the driver’s license proved nothing, and they handcuffed him'. Caption: 'FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW'; 'Dated: March 9, 2026'.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"In findings of fact filed on 9 March 2026 in Hussen v. Noem, a proposed class action over immigration stops during Operation Metro Surge, a federal judge in Minnesota found that a U.S. citizen was working at a house in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on 9 January 2026 when two immigration agents with 'border patrol' on their vests drove past, made a U-turn and asked where he was born; when he showed his driver's licence and REAL ID paperwork, they said the papers were fake and the licence proved nothing, and handcuffed him.","causal_attribution":"Findings of the court, made on the declarant's sworn account; the government's declarations did not address this stop."},{"id":"c2","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Footnote 11, page 30: 'One of the agents who stopped him conducted a facial recognition scan and told'; 'was born in Mexico City'; 'At least one agent, then, believed that'; 'to be of Mexican descent'.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The court's findings state that one of the agents who stopped him conducted a facial recognition scan and told him he was born in Mexico City; the judge cited this to infer that at least one agent believed he appeared to be of Mexican descent.","causal_attribution":"The court's restatement of the declaration (Id. para 12); the order does not say what the scan returned beyond what the agent then told him, and does not say whether the birthplace was wrong."},{"id":"c3","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Para 87, page 31: 'around for about thirty minutes, the agents met up with a different agent, who used a facial recognition scan to determine that'; 'was a U.S. citizen. Id.'; 'After that, the officers released'.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The judge found that the agents drove him around for about thirty minutes and then met a different agent, who used a facial recognition scan to determine that he was a U.S. citizen, after which the officers released him.","causal_attribution":"Findings of the court on the declarant's account."},{"id":"c4","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Para 88, page 31: 'stopped and detained based solely on his race or ethnicity. Without more, the assertions that'; 'are unsupported, pretextual justifications for prolonging the detention'; page 4: 'are not binding at trial on the merits'; page 80 (conclusions para 29): 'were encountered at construction worksites that'; 'traditionally indicate illegal aliens'; 'His declaration states he works in cleaning and property removal and does not mention construction'.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The judge found that he was stopped and detained based solely on his race or ethnicity, and that the agents' assertions that his papers were fake or proved nothing were unsupported, pretextual justifications for prolonging the detention; in its conclusions it rejected the government's argument that he was encountered at a construction worksite, because his declaration describes cleaning and property removal work and does not mention construction.","causal_attribution":"Judicial finding made on the preliminary-injunction record, which the court notes 'are not binding at trial on the merits'; it attributes the stop and detention to race or ethnicity, not to the facial recognition scan."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Paras 10-15: 'They put me in one of the SUVs.'; 'seemed to take a picture of my face with his phone. I believe he was using facial recognition software. He told me I was not a US citizen and that I was born in Mexico City. He told me I was under arrest. They put handcuffs on me.'; 'Instead, they just took my phone without letting me show the picture.'; 'They drove me around for probably 30 mins until a different agent met up with them. He used facial recognition with another system and it confirmed I was a citizen.'; 'They then let me go.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"In his sworn declaration, the man says that after he was put in an SUV a man in the front seat seemed to photograph his face with a phone, which he believed was facial recognition software, then told him he was not a U.S. citizen, that he was born in Mexico City and that he was under arrest, and he was handcuffed; agents took his phone when he tried to show a picture of his passport, drove him around for probably 30 minutes until a different agent used facial recognition 'with another system' that confirmed he was a citizen, and then let him go.","causal_attribution":"The declarant's sworn first-person account; the identification of the first phone photo as facial recognition is his belief."},{"id":"c6","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Pages 3, 7 (para 12) and 111: 'Defendants cross-examined Plaintiffs’ witnesses but offered no witness testimony'; 'Defendants submitted declarations disputing four accounts'; 'No. 84 (disputing account of Plaintiff Mubashir Hussen)'; 'provides brief accounts of the stops of Santiago Doe, Julio Doe,'; 'Plaintiffs’ motions will be denied.'; 'Plaintiffs have shown that Defendants likely maintained unconstitutional policies'; 'Plaintiffs’ Motion for a Preliminary Injunction [ECF No. 25] is DENIED.'; 'Plaintiffs’ Motion for Provisional Class Certification and Appointment of'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The court recorded that the government's declarations disputed four declarants' accounts, none of them this one, and that the government offered no witness testimony at the evidentiary hearing; it nonetheless denied the preliminary injunction and provisional class certification, holding that the plaintiffs had not shown a certainly impending future injury, while finding that the government likely maintained unconstitutional policies.","causal_attribution":"The court's own record of the evidence and its ruling."},{"id":"c7","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'NOTICE of Voluntary Dismissal by All Plaintiffs'; 'Date Terminated:'; 'Order Dismissing Case'; entries 199 (Jun 11, 2026) and 200 (Jun 18, 2026).","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"CourtListener's docket lists a notice of voluntary dismissal by all plaintiffs on 11 June 2026 and an order dismissing the case on 18 June 2026.","causal_attribution":"Docket index entries; the dismissal notice and order were not read."},{"id":"c8","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Para 157(f), page 57: 'was working at a house in Brooklyn Center on January 9, 2026 when two Border Patrol agents'; 'ran a facial recognition scan that told him he had been born in Mexico City'; 'drove him around for about thirty minutes until a second scan confirmed his citizenship'.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"A federal complaint filed on 1 October 2026 over the killing of Renee Good (Ganger v. Ross) restates the episode among the Hussen court's findings, describing the first scan as one 'that told him he had been born in Mexico City' and saying a second scan confirmed his citizenship.","causal_attribution":"The plaintiffs' restatement of the Hussen findings; the complaint's wording that the scan itself 'told him' the birthplace goes further than the order, which says the agent conducted a scan and told him."}],"effects":[{"label":"a U.S. citizen was handcuffed and detained by immigration agents in Border Patrol vests; a federal judge found the stop and detention were based solely on his race or ethnicity","claim_id":"c4","direction":"negative"},{"label":"after a facial recognition scan an agent told him he was born in Mexico City","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"},{"label":"he says the agent who seemed to photograph his face also told him he was not a U.S. citizen and was under arrest, and he was held for about thirty minutes until another agent's facial recognition scan confirmed his citizenship","claim_id":"c5","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.230424/gov.uscourts.mnd.230424.191.0_1.pdf","kind":"court_order","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read on 2026-10-02 from the RECAP PDF (111 pages, text layer): Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, Hussen v. Noem, D. Minn. No. 26-cv-324 (ECT/ECW), Doc. 191, filed 9 March 2026, Judge Eric C. Tostrud. Read in full for this episode (paras 85-88 and footnotes 11-12), the evidentiary posture (paras 11-12), the introduction and the order. The findings on this episode rest on the declarant's sworn declaration (s2), so the two are one evidentiary chain.","independence_group":"hussen-v-noem-declarant-account"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.230424/gov.uscourts.mnd.230424.39.0.pdf","kind":"court_filing","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in full on 2026-10-02 (3 pages): the detained man's sworn declaration under 28 U.S.C. 1746, signed 15 January 2026 and filed 16 January 2026 as Doc. 39 in support of the preliminary-injunction motion. It gives the event date as 'January 9, 2025'; the court treats 2025 as a typographical error.","independence_group":"hussen-v-noem-declarant-account"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.236480/gov.uscourts.mnd.236480.1.0.pdf","kind":"court_filing","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read on 2026-10-02 (text layer, 149 pages; para 157(f) on page 57): complaint in Ganger v. Ross, D. Minn. No. 0:26-cv-04231, filed 1 October 2026, which concerns the killing of Renee Good and restates the Hussen court's findings on this episode. It derives from s1 and adds no independent account.","independence_group":"hussen-v-noem-declarant-account"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72146903/hussen-v-mullin/","kind":"court_docket","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read on 2026-10-02: CourtListener docket page for Hussen v. Mullin (the caption CourtListener now shows), 0:26-cv-00324, last updated 13 September 2026; used only for the case's later procedural history.","independence_group":"courtlistener-hussen-docket"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["institutional_use"],"contexts":["justice","work"],"unknowns":["Which facial recognition application each agent used; the declarant says the second agent used 'another system'.","What the first scan actually returned, and whether the birthplace the agent stated was wrong; the record establishes his U.S. citizenship but not his birthplace.","Whether the man has brought any claim of his own; he was a declarant, not a party, in Hussen v. Noem.","Any psychological, work or financial consequences beyond the detention itself; the declaration does not describe them."],"geography":{"basis":"The stop happened at a house in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota; the court found the man is a U.S. citizen who lives in Minnesota; the findings were made by the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota (s1).","court_countries":["US"],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a contextual case from a federal court's findings of fact, made after an evidentiary hearing on a sworn declaration that the government's declarations did not dispute: a U.S. citizen was handcuffed and driven around by immigration agents with 'border patrol' on their vests, an agent told him after a facial recognition scan that he was born in Mexico City, and a second facial recognition scan established his citizenship before release. In findings on the preliminary-injunction record, the court found the stop and detention were based solely on race or ethnicity. The man is a private person and is not named here.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-02"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The court's findings state that an agent conducted a facial recognition scan and then told the man he was born in Mexico City, and that a different agent later used a facial recognition scan to determine that he was a U.S. citizen, after which he was released. Both findings rest on his sworn declaration. For the first scan he says the agent 'seemed' to photograph his face and that he believed facial recognition software was used, and he says the agents had already arrested him and put him in an SUV before that photo. No source read names either application or says what the first scan returned; the record shows only that the agent made the Mexico City statement after it. The recorded AI output is the second scan's: the court says it was used to determine his citizenship and the declaration says 'it confirmed I was a citizen', after which the officers released him. The court attributes the stop and detention to race or ethnicity, so no scan is established as the reason he was detained.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["made_claim_about"]},"name":"Brooklyn Center, Minnesota: immigration agents in Border Patrol vests handcuffed a U.S. citizen who was working at a house in January 2026 and an agent told him after a facial recognition scan that he was born in Mexico City; a federal judge found he was detained solely because of his race or ethnicity, and a second scan confirmed his citizenship before release","summary":"In findings of fact filed on 9 March 2026 in Hussen v. Noem, a proposed class action over immigration stops during Operation Metro Surge, Judge Eric C. Tostrud of the U.S. District Court in Minnesota found that a U.S. citizen working at a house in Brooklyn Center on 9 January 2026 was stopped and detained based solely on his race or ethnicity. Two agents with 'border patrol' on their vests asked where he was born, said his REAL ID papers were fake and his driver's licence proved nothing, and handcuffed him. According to the findings, one agent conducted a facial recognition scan and told him he was born in Mexico City; in his sworn declaration the man says the agent also told him he was not a U.S. citizen and was under arrest. After about thirty minutes of driving, a different agent used a facial recognition scan that determined he was a citizen, and he was released. The government's declarations did not dispute his account. The judge denied a preliminary injunction for lack of a certainly impending future injury, and the plaintiffs later dismissed the suit. No source read names the facial recognition application. A complaint filed on 1 October 2026 over the killing of Renee Good restates the episode.","incidentDate":"2026-01-09","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2026-01-16","aiSystem":"Facial recognition scans run by immigration agents during the stop: per the court's findings, one agent conducted a facial recognition scan and then told the man he was born in Mexico City, and a different agent later used a facial recognition scan that determined he was a U.S. citizen (the declarant says the second agent used 'another system'). No source read names either application.","aiProduct":"Unidentified facial recognition system","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["loss_of_liberty"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"A federal judge found the man, a U.S. citizen, was handcuffed and detained for about thirty minutes by immigration agents in Border Patrol vests, based solely on his race or ethnicity; he says an agent told him after a face scan that he was not a citizen and was under arrest.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"unclear","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":1,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the detained U.S. citizen (court findings paras 85-88; declaration). No one else is reported harmed in this stop.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"US-MN","platformType":"other","outcomeType":"lawsuit_dismissed","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.230424/gov.uscourts.mnd.230424.191.0_1.pdf","primarySourceLabel":"Hussen v. Noem, D. Minn. No. 26-cv-324, findings of fact and conclusions of law, 9 March 2026","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-02T03:17:51.628942+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-02T03:17:51.628942+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["facial-recognition","immigration-enforcement","operation-metro-surge","minnesota","border-patrol","wrongful-detention","racial-profiling","justice","made-claim-about"]},{"id":"2026-southampton-choudhury-arrested-after-retrospective-facial-recognition-match-milton-keynes-burglary","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"was working at the home he shares with his parents in Southampton in January","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"handcuffed him and held him in custody for nearly 10 hours before releasing him at 2am.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"On 8 January 2026 Mr Alvi Choudhury was arrested on suspicion of a burglary that had occurred 100 miles away from where he was at the time.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"Choudhury is claiming damages against Thames Valley police and Hampshire constabulary, which executed his arrest.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"But the arresting officers from Hampshire Constabulary didn’t want to know.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Alvi Choudhury was arrested at the home he shares with his parents in Southampton on 8 January 2026 on suspicion of a burglary in Milton Keynes, handcuffed and held in custody for nearly 10 hours until released at 2am. Hampshire Constabulary officers carried out the arrest.","causal_attribution":"Event description only. The account comes from Choudhury and his solicitors through the Guardian, Liberty Investigates and a chambers news post. The Thames Valley Police statement quoted by the Guardian treats the arrest as having happened and apologises for the distress caused. The 8 January date appears only in the chambers post (the Guardian says January)."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"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","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"following a retrospective facial recognition match, and was not influenced by racial profiling.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"A week later, after filing a complaint against Thames Valley Police, he found out the full story: he’d been flagged as a possible suspect by an automated facial recognition system.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"UK police forces use an algorithm procured by the Home Office from Cognitec, a German company.","relation":"context","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Thames Valley Police used automated retrospective facial recognition software that matched Choudhury with CCTV footage of a suspect in the Milton Keynes burglary. Choudhury says he learned about a week after the arrest, after filing a complaint, that an automated facial recognition system had flagged him as a possible suspect.","causal_attribution":"The Guardian bases the match on documents shared by Liberty Investigates, which were not inspected. The police spokesperson statement quoted in the same report itself refers to a retrospective facial recognition match. The sources do not state which product, version, threshold or match score applied to this search."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Thames Valley police said the decision to arrest Choudhury was made after a human visual assessment as well.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"A Thames Valley police spokesperson denied the arrest was unlawful and said: “While we apologise for the distress caused to the complainant in this case","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"Facial matches should be treated as intelligence, not fact, according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Thames Valley Police told the Guardian that the decision to arrest was made after a human visual assessment as well as the match, denied that the arrest was unlawful and said it was not influenced by racial profiling, and apologised for the distress caused. The Guardian reports the National Police Chiefs’ Council position that facial matches should be treated as intelligence, not fact.","causal_attribution":"A party statement about its own conduct, relayed by the Guardian. It addresses the arrest decision and gives no detail of the match."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"“I was very angry, because the kid looked about 10 years younger than me,” said Choudhury, who wears a beard.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"He offered evidence of work meetings in Southampton on the day of the crime but he was instead taken into custody.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"But Choudhury said officers at the Hampshire police station laughed when he asked: “Does this look anything like me?”","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"And he said the Thames Valley police officers who arrived to interview him said “they knew I wasn’t the suspect after looking at footage of the suspect and looking at my picture”.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Choudhury says the man in the CCTV footage looked about 10 years younger than Choudhury and had different features, that he offered evidence of work meetings in Southampton on the day of the burglary, that officers at the Hampshire police station laughed when he asked whether the footage looked like him, and that the Thames Valley Police officers who came to interview him said they knew he was not the suspect after looking at the footage and his picture.","causal_attribution":"First-person account relayed by the Guardian. The CCTV footage and the police interview record were not inspected, and no source independent of Choudhury describes the suspect’s appearance or the interview."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Thames Valley police admitted to Choudhury the arrest “may have been the result of bias within facial recognition technology”.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"Thames Valley Police wrote to Choudhury, acknowledging that his arrest “may have been the result of bias within facial recognition technology”","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"as the use of facial recognition is already subject to review at a strategic level, I do not feel the need to raise this issue as part of wider organisational learning","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Thames Valley Police wrote to Choudhury that the arrest “may have been the result of bias within facial recognition technology”. An officer also told him that, because facial recognition use is already subject to review at a strategic level, the issue would not be raised as part of wider organisational learning.","causal_attribution":"Quotations from a police letter to Choudhury as relayed by the Guardian and Liberty Investigates. The letter itself was not inspected. The wording is conditional (“may have been”)."},{"id":"c6","status":"disputed","evidence":[{"locator":"“I just assumed that the investigative officer saw that I was a brown person with curly hair and decided to arrest me.”","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"their arrest was based on the investigating officers’ own visual assessment that the individual matched the suspect in CCTV footage","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"Confusingly, however, the force concluded that his arrest was not a case of racial profiling, because officers had made their own assessment of the images before arresting him.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Whether the facial recognition match or the officers’ own visual assessment led to the arrest decision, and whether bias in the software contributed, is disputed. Choudhury says he assumed the investigating officer saw a brown person with curly hair and decided to arrest him. Thames Valley Police say the arrest rested on the investigating officers’ own visual assessment following the match and was not influenced by racial profiling, while also acknowledging in writing that the arrest may have been the result of bias within facial recognition technology.","causal_attribution":"Two accounts that conflict on the decisive input to the arrest. Neither the match record nor the officers’ assessment record was inspected."},{"id":"c7","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"His neighbours saw him being led away in handcuffs, his father was very anxious about him being held and he was unable to work the following day, he said.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"He sometimes needs security clearance to work for government clients and he is asked about arrests and said: “This makes me look dodgier and dodgier.”","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"Now he has had a second mugshot taken he is afraid the automated system could trigger more wrongful arrests.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"While we apologise for the distress caused to the complainant in this case","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Choudhury reports that neighbours saw him led away in handcuffs, that his father was very anxious about him being held, and that he was unable to work the following day. He says he sometimes needs security clearance to work for government clients, is asked about arrests, and that “This makes me look dodgier and dodgier”, and that he is afraid the automated system could trigger more arrests now that a second mugshot has been taken.","causal_attribution":"First-person account relayed by the Guardian. The police apology for distress caused is the only independent acknowledgement of an effect. No effect on an actual clearance decision is reported."},{"id":"c8","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"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","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"The police released him with no further action.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"comparing images taken from sources such as social media and CCTV to a database of more than 19m custody images, or mugshots.","relation":"context","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Choudhury’s image was held on the police system only because of an arrest in 2021 that the Guardian describes as wrongful (he had been attacked on a night out) and that ended with police releasing him with no further action.","causal_attribution":"Background as told by Choudhury to the Guardian. The sources do not state in terms that this custody image was the one returned by the search."},{"id":"c9","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Choudhury is claiming damages against Thames Valley police and Hampshire constabulary, which executed his arrest.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"after filing a complaint against Thames Valley Police","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"to pursue a claim for damages against Thames Valley Police for false imprisonment, breach of data protection law, breach of Art 8 ECHR and breach of the Equality Act 2010.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"Choudhury filed a complaint against Thames Valley Police and is claiming damages from Thames Valley Police and Hampshire Constabulary. His solicitors have instructed counsel to pursue a claim for damages against Thames Valley Police for false imprisonment, breach of data protection law, breach of Article 8 ECHR and breach of the Equality Act 2010.","causal_attribution":"A complaint and a claim establish only their own existence and the allegations made. No court filing or outcome was found in the inspected sources."},{"id":"c10","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"This is the FR software currently used in the Police National Database (PND) for which the operational use case is Retrospective Facial Recognition (RFR).","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"},{"locator":"The FPIR for White subjects (0.04 %) is lower than that for Asian subjects (4.0 %)","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"},{"locator":"At a face-match threshold of 0.8:","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"A National Physical Laboratory report for the Home Office and the Office of the Policing Chief Scientific Adviser (dated October 2025) evaluated Cognitec FaceVACS-DBScan ID v5.5, which it describes as the facial recognition software used in the Police National Database for retrospective facial recognition. At a face-match threshold of 0.8 on its test data it found a false positive identification rate of 4.0 % for Asian subjects and 0.04 % for White subjects.","causal_attribution":"The report establishes the evaluation findings on its own test dataset. It does not state which product version, threshold or settings applied to the search in this case."}],"effects":[{"label":"Arrested at home and held in custody for nearly 10 hours after a police retrospective facial recognition match","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"},{"label":"Distress acknowledged by the police, a lost working day and worry about future arrests and security clearance, as reported by Choudhury","claim_id":"c7","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/25/facial-recognition-error-prompts-police-to-arrest-asian-man-for-burglary-100-miles-away","kind":"news","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"","independence_group":"guardian-liberty-investigates-reporting"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://libertyinvestigates.org.uk/articles/the-rise-of-facial-recognition-policing/","kind":"news","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"","independence_group":"guardian-liberty-investigates-reporting"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.doughtystreet.co.uk/news/automated-facial-recognition-software-innocent-man-arrested","kind":"organisation_statement","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read through an Internet Archive capture of 22 April 2026 because the site returned HTTP 403 to direct requests.","independence_group":"claimant-legal-team-post"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/693002a4cdec734f4dff4149/1a_Cognitec_NPL_Equitability_Report_October_25.pdf","kind":"official_record","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"","independence_group":"npl-evaluation-report"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["institutional_use"],"contexts":["justice","privacy"],"unknowns":["Which product, version, face-match threshold and match score the Thames Valley Police search used is not stated. The National Physical Laboratory report evaluates Cognitec FaceVACS-DBScan ID v5.5 (the Police National Database software) at stated thresholds, and the sources do not say those settings applied here.","The documents shared with the Guardian, the police letter to Choudhury, the CCTV footage and the police interview record were not inspected. All account details come from news reports and a chambers post.","Whether the human visual assessment preceded the arrest request, which force made the request and which force made the decision are stated differently by Choudhury, his solicitors and the police, and no record was inspected.","Whether a court claim was filed and the outcome of the complaint and the damages claim are not reported in any inspected source (the latest inspected reports are dated 1 April 2026).","The date 8 January 2026 comes from the news post of the claimant’s counsel (Internet Archive capture). The Guardian says only January. Distances given by outlets differ (100 miles in the Guardian) and are not material.","The burglary, the burglary suspect and any prosecution are not described in the inspected sources."],"geography":{"basis":"The arrest took place at Choudhury’s home in Southampton and the burglary was in Milton Keynes, both placed in England by the Guardian (Thames Valley Police and Hampshire Constabulary are the forces named). No court proceedings are reported, so court countries are unknown.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["GB"],"affected_person_countries":["GB"]},"publication":{"basis":"The Guardian article and the Liberty Investigates April feature were read in full from saved bodies. They come from one Liberty Investigates investigation built on an interview with Choudhury, documents shared with the Guardian and police statements, so they count as one reporting chain. The arrest date comes from the claimant’s counsel and the technical context from the National Physical Laboratory report, cited for its own contents. Claims about the arrest stay at reported status, the decisive causal question is recorded as disputed because Thames Valley Police dispute the causal account, and only the contents of the National Physical Laboratory report are recorded as documented. Choudhury is named because he spoke about the arrest under his own name to the Guardian and Liberty Investigates. The burglary suspect is not named or described beyond the reported age difference.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-29"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"Thames Valley Police’s own statement, quoted by the Guardian, refers to a retrospective facial recognition match preceding the arrest, and the Guardian cites documents shared by Liberty Investigates. The police say the arrest decision rested on the investigating officers’ own visual assessment. Choudhury says the footage showed a man who looked about 10 years younger with different features, and that he assumed the investigating officer decided to arrest him because he is a brown person with curly hair. The police also wrote that the arrest may have been the result of bias within the technology. The weight of the match in the arrest decision is disputed. The sources do not identify the product version, threshold or match score.","status":"supported"},"person_relations":["made_claim_about"]},"name":"Southampton: Alvi Choudhury arrested at home on suspicion of a Milton Keynes burglary after a police retrospective facial recognition match, held nearly 10 hours, claiming damages","summary":"The Guardian, in a joint report with Liberty Investigates, reported on 25 February 2026 that Alvi Choudhury, a 26-year-old software engineer, was arrested at his home in Southampton in January 2026 on suspicion of a £3,000 burglary in Milton Keynes, about 100 miles away, and held in custody for nearly 10 hours. Thames Valley Police had used automated retrospective facial recognition software, which matched him with CCTV footage of the burglary suspect. Choudhury says the man in the footage looked about 10 years younger and had different features. Thames Valley Police wrote to him that the arrest may have been the result of bias within facial recognition technology, and told the Guardian that the decision rested on the investigating officers’ own visual assessment and was not influenced by racial profiling. Choudhury is claiming damages from Thames Valley Police and Hampshire Constabulary.","incidentDate":"2026-01-08","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2026-02-25","aiSystem":"Retrospective facial recognition search run by Thames Valley Police (product, version and reference database not stated in the sources)","aiProduct":"Unidentified facial recognition system","aiCompany":"Not stated in the sources for this search (the Guardian says UK police forces use an algorithm procured by the Home Office from Cognitec)","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["loss_of_liberty","psychological_distress"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The Guardian reports Choudhury was handcuffed at home, held for nearly 10 hours and released at 2am, and was unable to work the following day. Choudhury says neighbours saw him led away. Thames Valley Police apologised for the distress caused and deny the arrest was unlawful.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"disputed","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":1,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One man reported arrested and held. His father, neighbours and the burglary suspect are not counted as harmed.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"GB","platformType":"other","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/25/facial-recognition-error-prompts-police-to-arrest-asian-man-for-burglary-100-miles-away","primarySourceLabel":"The Guardian with Liberty Investigates (25 Feb 2026): Facial recognition error prompts police to arrest Asian man for burglary 100 miles away","firstPublishedAt":"2026-09-29T21:15:56.164264+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T01:17:54.246626+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["historical-2026"]}]}