Latest news with #WestbrookPoliceDepartment
The Star
03-07-2025
- The Star
US police say they mistakenly posted AI-generated drug seizure photo on Facebook
The officer did not ask police leadership before using ChatGPT, but no one in the department knew the chatbot could alter or change images as it did, Goldberg said. — Pixabay The Westbrook Police Department said it mistakenly posted an AI-generated picture of items from a drug seizure to its Facebook page after an officer asked ChatGPT to add a police badge to the photo. The image, which was posted Sunday evening, showed a collection of white powder in plastic bags, a scale, spoon and other paraphernalia spread out on a countertop. Police said the items, including methamphetamine and fentanyl, were seized from a home on Brackett Street last week where six people were arrested. Some aspects of the image prompted criticism from hundreds of commenters, who pointed out malformed text and muddled lines, which could indicate an image may have been generated by artificial intelligence. In a follow-up post Tuesday morning, the department denied that AI had been used to generate the photo, saying the packaging may depict words in "gibberish" because the drugs are illicit. "The packaging is most likely foreign, and it is possible that whoever made the packaging used AI to make a clearly knock-off package," the post read. Hours later, the department appeared to have deleted both posts. It posted a new update with the unaltered photo around 1pm Tuesday, clarifying that the earlier image had been altered by AI when an officer attempted to add the department's badge to the photo using an app. Capt Steven Goldberg said in an interview at the department Tuesday that the app used was ChatGPT, a chatbot that can also create images with generative AI. "Unbeknownst to anyone, when the app added the patch, it altered the packaging and some of the other attributes on the photograph," the department wrote in the Facebook post. "None of us caught it or realised it." When confronted with the public's concerns, department leaders had assumed the packaging did contain "gibberish text," as do many drug-related materials, according to the post. The unaltered image shows the text on the packaging was in English and some items had been obscured or removed entirely. The officer did not ask police leadership before using ChatGPT, but no one in the department knew the chatbot could alter or change images as it did, Goldberg said. When the police department was met with hundreds of Facebook comments, the officer showed Goldberg the original photograph and they noticed the inconsistencies. Goldberg said the mistake has prompted procedural changes so that AI will not be used for social media posts. "We've now learned our lesson," he said. "We didn't realise it would do this. Now that we know it can, we don't want to deal with that at all. There's too much at stake with that." – Portland Press Herald, Maine/Tribune News Service
Int'l Business Times
02-07-2025
- Int'l Business Times
Maine Police Insist AI Photo of Drugs Seized in Bust Was Legitimate Before Finally Copping to the Fake
A Maine police department issued an apology after initially doubling down on the authenticity of a drug seizure photo — only to later admit that the photo had been altered by artificial intelligence. The Westbrook Police Department posted an image on Sunday showing fentanyl and methamphetamine seized during a June 24 bust. But sharp-eyed viewers quickly spotted gibberish written on drug packaging, sparking accusations that the image was AI-generated. In response, the department insisted on Facebook that the photo was real. "Is the packaging weird? Yes," they wrote. "But that is legitimately what was located and seized by officers... We assure you that Westbrook PD is not and would never generate an AI photo to try and depict evidence." But after deleting the post, the department admitted Tuesday afternoon that the image had, in fact, been altered. An officer had reportedly used ChatGPT to add the department's patch to the photo before uploading it, inadvertently transforming other parts of the image without noticing. "Unbeknownst to anyone, when the app added the patch, it altered the packaging and some of the other attributes," the department said. "None of us caught it or realized it." The department later posted the original, unaltered photo and apologized, calling it "a valuable lesson learned." Critics say the incident highlights the growing risk of AI tools being misused—or used carelessly—by public agencies. Despite the controversy, Westbrook police emphasized that the bust itself was real: six people were arrested and officers seized roughly 61 grams of fentanyl and 23 grams of methamphetamine. But the image fiasco, they acknowledged, ended up overshadowing that message entirely. Originally published on Latin Times
Miami Herald
02-07-2025
- Miami Herald
Police apologize after using AI-altered photo to boast about Maine drug bust
A police department in Maine shared a photo edited with artificial intelligence as it boasted about a recent drug bust. The Westbrook Police Department has since apologized, saying in a July 1 post on Facebook that edits made on the original photo through 'a Photoshop app' were not caught before it was shared online. Police later revealed to WGME that it was ChatGPT, not Photoshop, that was used to revise the photo. 'When we look and compare the two photos, it's really bizarre as to what that app did to the photo,' Westbrook Police Capt. Steven Goldberg told the news outlet. 'As you mentioned, it got rid of those cookie cutter packaging, it completely redid the lettering of some of the packages and it seemed to alter some of the things we took pictures of. I know we mentioned the spoon and the case, and we don't have a good explanation why.' The original post was deleted, but police provided the original photo and the edited one in its follow-up. It said the photo was edited with AI, not generated. The department said it did not realize parts of the image had been changed until members of the community brought up their concerns. 'Clearly, we should have looked further into the shared image,' police said in its Facebook post. 'We consider this a valuable lesson learned. This image distracted from the message we wanted to share, which is that dangerous drugs have been removed from our community.' But before realizing its photo had been altered, police doubled down and 'set the record straight.' The 'gibberish' text shown in the AI-edited photo was real, the department initially said. 'That is legitimately what was located and seized by officers,' police said. 'The packaging is most likely foreign, and it is possible that whoever made that packaging used AI to make a clearly knock-off package.' The department's follow-up post has received hundreds of comments, many of which criticize its use of AI. Others say they were 'gaslit' by the department's second post, which was also deleted. 'Doubling down on the clearly altered pictures and promising you didn't use any AI before posting this new update was an interesting choice,' one commenter said. 'The dangerous part isn't that you used AI to alter an image. It's that you denied using AI at all on the photo,' another commenter said. 'You told a bold faced lie to the public that you are sworn to serve.' 'This incident should be used as a primary source example for the responsible and accountable use of technology (particularly AI) by police departments in public facing spaces,' one man said. 'You can see many items were altered, neglected, or added to the edited photo. The issue is not AI or Photoshop, it's the lack of a careful review of content being published on the profile.' Six people were charged in the drug bust, WMTW reported, as authorities seized 61 grams of fentanyl and 23 grams of methamphetamine. Westbrook is a western suburb of Portland, the most populous city in Maine.
Boston Globe
02-07-2025
- Boston Globe
Police in Maine apologize for AI-altered photo of seized drugs
Westbrook police posted the original photo and AI-enhanced version of it together, side by side. Advertisement At first glance, the two photos look very similar. But upon closer inspection of the AI-enhanced photo, you can see the text on the products has been obscured, erased, or changed entirely to appear like gibberish. Some items in the original photo are also missing and others look different. For example, a scale in the original photo is covered in a white powdery substance. But in the AI-enhanced photo, there's less powder on the scale and the brand name of the scale (Fuzion Diablo) has been removed and replaced with unreadable words. The changes did not go unnoticed by Facebook users. 'How would photoshop 'just to add a logo,' change the brand of scale, make a penny look like a piece of paper, change the type of spoon, and screw up labels on packaging and Soooo much more wrong!?' one commenter wrote. Advertisement The post from the Westbrook Police Department said officials did not mean to change the image. 'It was never our intent to alter the image of the evidence,' police wrote. 'We never realized that using a photoshop app to add our logo would alter a photograph so substantially.' Police said in the past they've encountered drug-related materials with 'gibberish text' on their packaging. 'When initially alerted to the public concerns of the image, we assumed this was the case in this situation as well,' police wrote. 'Clearly, we should have looked further into the shared image.' Westbrook police said they would be inviting members of the news media to come in and view the original evidence, so they can see it exists as pictured in the original photo. 'We consider this a valuable lesson learned,' police wrote. 'This image distracted from the message we wanted to share, which is that dangerous drugs have been removed from our community.' Emily Sweeney can be reached at
