Police Officers

Does a picture show a Columbian fishing boat filled with cocaine before it was destroyed in the Caribbean Sea by the U.S. Naval Task Force in October 2025? No, that's not true: The photo is from a 2024 drug bust by Spanish forces that occurred 500 miles south of the Canary Islands. The story was reported in the news and…

Did MSNBC air old 2017 footage of a large crowd in Boston Common and misrepresent it as live footage of the Oct.2025 No Kings protest? No, that's not true: The footage shows the October 18, 2025 No Kings protest as it was taking place. The 2017 protest mentioned on social media took place in a different area of the Boston…

Did UK police attempt to seize a child's phone for viewing a social media post? No, that's not true: In the recording shared as "proof" of the claim, police were heard saying the reason for their visit was different. In a statement released in response to social media posts, police said that their visit to the home of a suspect,…

Does the viral image show "Matthew J. Ruth", the deceased suspect in the shooting that left three law enforcement officers dead in Pennsylvania on the night of September 17, 2025? No, that's not true: The images show a different person, who is still alive. That was confirmed to Lead Stories by the man himself and by police. The claim appeared…

Does an authentic video document "fake HOA police" trying to arrest a Black man but finding out he is a feared agent of the FBI? No that's not true: The video is a production of a social media account that uses AI to produce videos. The account states the stories they share are not real but ones that "everyday people…

Does a viral bodycam video authentically show a cop mistaking a Black lawyer for a defendant and ordering him to sit in the back of a courtroom? No, that's not true: The video originated from a channel that publishes re-enactments using the same actors repeatedly in supposedly unrelated roles and situations. The channel's homepage description acknowledges that it posts "fictional…

Does a viral social media video show a Ford electric car malfunctioning, with its steering locked and accelerator to the floor? No, that's not true: Lead Stories used geolocation techniques to find the scene of the accident and obtain a police report that a malfunction did not cause the wreck. California Highway Patrol said the driver was arrested for driving…

Essex police have rebutted an X post that claims they called migrant protesters fascists. The video making the rounds on X shows a protest crowd walking with police in Epping, Essex, UK. The man filming says he heard the officer telling police to look out for "fascists", and shared his video on X. Later that day, Essex Police disputed his…

Did a widely-shared video show an argument between a police officer and four undercover FBI agents on an airplane? No, that's not true: The people in the video were simply acting out a scripted scenario. The page that posted the sketch routinely publishes similar scripted scenarios, and is affiliated with Network Media, a company that rents out film sets to…

Does a viral video document ICE agents seizing undocumented children from foster care to deport them? No, that's not true: It's a montage of unrelated clips about alleged juvenile crimes, disorderly behavior at school and other situations with no apparent connection to immigration roundups. The video's narrator provides no dates, places, case numbers or other information to permit independent corroboration…