Police officer investigated for using AI to 'create evidence' in multiple cases

#1

Post by austinallegro » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 7:54 PM UTC

Police officer investigated for using AI to 'create evidence' in multiple cases
news.sky.com

Re: Police officer investigated for using AI to 'create evidence' in multiple cases

#2

Post by WarOnPrivacy » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 8:59 PM UTC

    [The Derbyshire Police] declined to give more detail
    about what the evidential material consisted of.
 
    The term [evidential material] can be used to
    describe witness statements.

Re: Police officer investigated for using AI to 'create evidence' in multiple cases

#3

Post by bobthepanda » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 9:04 PM UTC

i do wonder, that in the age where we have image and video creation out of the bag, whether or not this will result in whole classes of evidence becoming completely unreliable.

Re: Police officer investigated for using AI to 'create evidence' in multiple cases

#4

Post by radicaldreamer » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 9:08 PM UTC

I wonder how many people have been unjustly imprisoned between planted evidence, made up evidence, and illegal parallel construction…

Re: Police officer investigated for using AI to 'create evidence' in multiple cases

#5

Post by thewebguyd » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 9:09 PM UTC

bobthepanda wrote: post #3

i do wonder, that in the age where we have image and video creation out of the bag, whether or not this will result in whole classes of evidence becoming completely unreliable.

I suspect so. Tbh, I'm surprised it hasn't happened already with the amount of processing that cell phones do on photos, with generative fill/expand/perspective change, etc.

We are quickly going to reach a point where any photo or video taken on a smartphone is inadmissible by default.

Re: Police officer investigated for using AI to 'create evidence' in multiple cases

#6

Post by pjc50 » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 9:13 PM UTC

bobthepanda wrote: post #3

i do wonder, that in the age where we have image and video creation out of the bag, whether or not this will result in whole classes of evidence becoming completely unreliable.

There's a big gap between "theoretically unreliable" and courts actually recognizing that, unfortunately. Lots of forensics is much more dubious than CSI would have you believe.

Re: Police officer investigated for using AI to 'create evidence' in multiple cases

#7

Post by yardstick » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 9:25 PM UTC

bobthepanda wrote: post #3

i do wonder, that in the age where we have image and video creation out of the bag, whether or not this will result in whole classes of evidence becoming completely unreliable.

There used to be - probably still are - cameras that would digitally sign all their images. Used in crime scenes? Maybe we will end up seeing wider adoption of this, despite the privacy implications. Hackers attention then will focus (once again) on the certificate supply chain and crypto hardware.

Re: Police officer investigated for using AI to 'create evidence' in multiple cases

#8

Post by aorloff » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 9:30 PM UTC

yardstick wrote: post #7

bobthepanda wrote: post #3

i do wonder, that in the age where we have image and video creation out of the bag, whether or not this will result in whole classes of evidence becoming completely unreliable.

There used to be - probably still are - cameras that would digitally sign all their images. Used in crime scenes? Maybe we will end up seeing wider adoption of this, despite the privacy implications. Hackers attention then will focus (once again) on the certificate supply chain and crypto hardware.

I imagine in this age of blockchains you could embed into a media file a signature that proved it was no older than the timestamp of when it occurred, the digital equivalent of a hostage-proof-of-life photo with a recent newspaper

But I don't know of a cryptographic mechanism to ensure that a digital image is not more recent than a particular time

Re: Police officer investigated for using AI to 'create evidence' in multiple cases

#9

Post by madaxe_again » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 9:33 PM UTC

radicaldreamer wrote: post #4

I wonder how many people have been unjustly imprisoned between planted evidence, made up evidence, and illegal parallel construction…

Over all time? Probably tens of millions.

Re: Police officer investigated for using AI to 'create evidence' in multiple cases

#10

Post by catlikesshrimp » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 9:36 PM UTC

aorloff wrote: post #8

yardstick wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There used to be - probably still are - cameras that would digitally sign all their images. Used in crime scenes? Maybe we will end up seeing wider adoption of this, despite the privacy implications. Hackers attention then will focus (once again) on the certificate supply chain and crypto hardware.

I imagine in this age of blockchains you could embed into a media file a signature that proved it was no older than the timestamp of when it occurred, the digital equivalent of a hostage-proof-of-life photo with a recent newspaper But I don't know of a cryptographic mechanism to ensure that a digital image is not more recent than a particular time

Interesting, There aren't any newspapers left in my country, neither printed nor not printed. The closest you can find is the weekly advertising booklet here and there. Which is irrelevant now because a computer can either stich new content to an old picture, or entirely producing a custom picture.

That would be a use case for a block chain. But I still don't understand how you are securing the integrity of the validity of the certificate stating the authenticity of the media. I only understand you are stamping media with a "at least as old as [timestamp]