Z White police officers in heavy gear support an injured colleague. There is a large wound on his forehead, blood running through his short haircut and down his face. In the background you can see a large crowd of people dressed in black, with bottles lying on the floor.
This is what the cover photo of a press release from January 25th from the Saxony Police Union looked like. The headline: “Serious riots in Magdeburg – GdP Saxony condemns violence” about riots at a football game. The image suggests: The police are victims of violence in these riots. The problem: The image is not real, but AI-generated. The police officers pictured do not exist and what is shown did not take place in this form.
That the police It is undisputed that people get into situations like the one in the picture, especially when working in stadiums. This was also the case in the football match between 1. FC Magdeburg and Dynamo Dresden. The Saxony police union speaks of “64 injured police officers”, some of whom ended up in hospital with serious injuries.
The question, however, is why the announcement used an ultimately false picture with an easily overlooked note in the lower right corner “AI: ChatGPT” to represent the real situation on the ground. There is no indication in the message itself that an ultimately incorrect image was used here.
“Constant editorial action”
Today, January 29th, the misleading image was removed and replaced with a simple, unspectacular image of a blue light. The changes in the case of the bloodied police officer to the violence in the stadium were part of “a constant editorial requirement,” a spokesman for the police union told the taz upon request. Real photos would be out of the question due to personal rights, investigations and the protection of those affected. The spokesperson adds that the change is “not a reassessment of content,” but rather a “reduction in visualization.” Why such a drastic image was initially chosen remains an open question.
The drastic depiction of the injured police officer in particular caused criticism after it was published on social networks and media. But AI-generated images have also been used in other police operations, such as Saxony-Anhalt Police Union in a press release dated January 24, 2026.
Narratives through artificial intelligence
It is easy to imagine generated images with clichéd depictions of leftists with “hammer and sickle” patches on their jackets and dyed hair, in which they beat police officers. Thanks to artificial intelligence, any narrative can be created or deliberately falsified. A police union must be aware of the implications of such generated images.
It undermines the remaining seriousness of the police if, in addition to the accusations of massively excessive harshness, as was the case at the demonstrations in Gießen at the end of last year, they now also actively convey false impressions using AI images. The fact that police chat groups regularly appear with nationalist and racist content and have hardly any consequences shows the character of the institution. At least the following sentence in the Magdeburg press release is correct: “Violence must have no place in football.”