Alberta’s police watchdog has cleared an Alberta Sheriffs peace officer of any criminal wrongdoing after he admitted to creating intimate images of female coworkers with AI. According to a report from the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), released on Wednesday, a family member discovered “a number” of images on the officer’s personal phone in April. ASIRT said the images were of adult women, including co-workers, and appeared to be generated from “non-intimate” images posted to social media. The report says the existence of the images was “brought to the attention of the Alberta Sheriffs,” at which time the officer admitted to his manager that he created them using an AI app, but said he hadn’t distributed them. ASIRT launched an investigation into the officer’s actions on June 30. ‘Impacts his female co-workers’ In its report, ASIRT said while the unnamed officer’s “conduct is serious” and “will have lasting impacts on his female co-workers and their ability to feel safe in the workplace,” no criminal offence was committed. The report notes that in Canada, it is illegal to publish, distribute, transmit, sell, make available or advertise an intimate image of a person knowing that they did not give their consent to that conduct. Amendments to the section of the Criminal Code that covers intimate images were made in June, expanding to cover AI images. However, because the amendments didn’t take effect until 30 days later, in mid-July, they don’t apply to this incident. “When the ASIRT investigation began on June 30, the old provisions applied,” the report said. ASIRT said not only did the officer’s conduct “not meet the elements of the offence” as it was defined at that time because the images were AI-generated – but there is also no evidence that he published, distributed, transmitted, sold, made available or advertised the images. “As ASIRT’s mandate covers only criminal matters, the (officer’s) conduct is best addressed by the Alberta Sheriffs under their code of conduct,” ASIRT concluded. It’s not known where in Alberta the officer resided when the incident took place; ASIRT said in the report the officer was “not formally designated” at the time. The Alberta Sheriffs Branch says the officer has been removed from active duty while an internal investigation is conducted. “The Alberta Sheriffs Branch is committed to upholding the values of accountability, integrity and respect,” said a statement sent to CTV News. “Those values are the foundation of the professional standards and workplace conduct expected throughout the organization.”
