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
