GREAT FALLS — The Great Falls Police Department is alerting the community to a bogus Facebook post that features a photo of GFPD Sergeant Katie Cunningham.
The fake post, featuring a dated photo of Cunningham, says that she has been reported missing and may be "in EXTREME danger" in "Kent County."
In reality, Sergeant Cunningham is alive and well, serving the community in her role as a School Resource Officer supervisor.
The GFPD noted:
How to spot the fakeness...
😮Cunningham is very petite at 5'3"
😮Kent County isn't even in Montana (it's in Michigan)
😮The photo is 10 years old
😮Her uniform has the wrong rank
😮She is not 28 years old
😮A silver alert indicates an elderly person is missing
😮Most importantly, we just spoke to her and she is alive and well at Great Falls High, working as the SRO supervisor
The agency noted that when Cunningham sent her husband the screenshot, he asked if there is a reward.
The reason that people create such fake posts isn't obvious, other than someone trying to garner attention, or trying to entice people to contact the poster in order to try to perpetrate a scam.
People who share such posts on social media often do so in the mistaken belief that they are helping - alerting others to what they believe to a genuine threat, or urging people to help find a missing person.
However, sharing such posts could lessen the impact of genuine posts about missing people from real law enforcement agencies and news outlets, and/or cause undue alarm in a community.
