In this day and age, it’s hard to believe anything on the internet, especially with the power of AI being so prevalent. Now, it appears that the police force is dipping its toes into AI use, specifically the Westbrook Maine Police Department. The local cops had taken care of a drug bust on Brackett Street and seized quite a load of illegal goods, charging six guilty individuals from the incident. However, when making the report public on its official Facebook page, the Westbrook police decided to run the photo through an AI filter, which made things look a little uncanny. Needless to say, the internet wasn’t too pleased.
“I’m honestly disgusted and disturbed. Now news sources are posting this as actual news,” remarks a Reddit user posting the whole ordeal on r/Maine. “When AI learns to generate legible text and draw hands, we’re f**ked,” chimes in a top commenter. “It’s obviously goofy but this is a terrifying precedent to set,” agreed a third. Many more commenters and upvoters shared a similar sentiment: the government, especially the authorities, should never be using AI in place of their actual ‘evidence.’ How else are people supposed to know what to believe, what’s real or fabricated?
People already have less faith in cops these days with all the madness ensuing with ICE and the like. Now, this AI-filtered post has made things worse. “This is just so f*cking pathetic. Be extra careful out there y’all. Cops have always made sh*t up; now they have “proof” to back it up. Scary times,” remarks a Redditor. “Wow, cops being shady, never would have imagined it,” adds another. For those wondering, the Westbrook Maine Police Department has addressed the whole fiasco and apologized, but instead of admitting it was AI, they doubled down, claiming it was just “photoshop.”
The Facebook post explains, “After taking the photograph, the officer wanted to add in our department patch to identify Westbrook as the arresting agency.” Apparently, no one in their entire staff caught it before it went out. Human error is a thing, of course, but using any sort of AI in the first place to alter publicized evidence is still very questionable. Moving forward, people will now wonder if their local police are using AI in their photos and videos. The Westbrook police have once again jaded our trust in the police.
