{"id":903397,"date":"2026-09-24T06:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T06:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/903397\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T06:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T06:14:11","slug":"nt-police-officers-allegedly-circulated-sexually-explicit-ai-generated-video-of-former-assistant-commissioner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/903397\/","title":{"rendered":"NT police officers allegedly circulated sexually explicit AI-generated video of former assistant commissioner"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former Northern Territory Police assistant commissioner has taken her old colleagues to court for sharing a deepfake sexually explicit video that used her professional photograph.<\/p>\n

Janelle Tonkin issued a statement yesterday after criminal proceedings on the issue were finalised, saying the incident was part of broader problems within the NT Police Force (NTPF).<\/p>\n

“In December 2025, I became aware that an AI-generated, sexually explicit video had been created using my official Northern Territory Police photograph,” she said.<\/p>\n

The video was then allegedly shared among serving members of the police force.<\/p>\n

The outcome of the court proceedings is unknown.<\/p>\n

Ms Tonkin said what happened to her was “extremely distressing, personally and professionally”.<\/p>\n

\"Janelle<\/p>\n

Janelle Tonkin says her professional portrait photograph was turned into pornography and circulated among colleagues. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)<\/p>\n

“Having my professional portrait photograph, taken in the course of my job turned into pornography and circulated among colleagues is something no person should have to experience, at work or anywhere else,” she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Tonkin, who is now president of the advocacy group Australasian Council of Women and Policing, said the deepfake video was not an isolated incident.<\/p>\n

“It sits within a broader set of experiences I’ve had over recent times in this organisation, experiences I haven’t yet spoken about publicly, and intend to, in full, when the time is right,” she said.<\/p>\n

“For now, I’ll say this much: there remains real work to do, from the most senior levels of the Northern Territory Police Force down to the rank and file, to build a workplace where every officer, regardless of gender, race or religion, is treated with the safety, respect and support they’re entitled to expect.”<\/p>\n

NTPF says conduct ‘totally unacceptable’<\/p>\n

In a statement, a Northern Territory Police Force spokesperson said they do not “comment on internal investigations” and were legally constrained from commenting on matters before the court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“However, the conduct that Commander Tonkin was subject to in this matter, was, and always will be, totally unacceptable,” they said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The NTPF says it has zero tolerance for bullying in any form. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)<\/p>\n

“The NTPF has zero tolerance for bullying in any form.<\/p>\n

“Every NT Police employee has the right to a safe, respectful and inclusive workplace, and the NTPF is committed to holding those standards across all levels of the organisation.”<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said recruits were taught “standards of conduct and workplace behaviour expected of them”, including respect and anti-harassment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The NT Police Association (NTPA) also condemned the conduct, but could not confirm details of an internal police investigation into the matter, or whether a broader investigation into sexism and bullying was taking place.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Nathan Finn said there was no place in a workplace for this kind of conduct. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)<\/p>\n

NTPA president Nathan Finn said the creation or sharing of sexually explicit material, including AI-generated content, can cause serious harm and has no place in a workplace.<\/p>\n

“Ms Tonkin is entitled to be treated with dignity and respect,” he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“Sexism is an issue the NTPA takes seriously. We would not dismiss concerns raised by members serving in the NT Police Force, nor claim that every member or workplace has the same experience.<\/p>\n

“Members should be able to work free from sexism, bullying and harassment, and have confidence that concerns will be addressed and thoroughly investigated and those members found to have not acted appropriately, are dealt with via criminal or disciplinary processes.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Northern Territory Police assistant commissioner has taken her old colleagues to court for sharing a deepfake…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":903398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,471361,254,255,64,471561,63,40316,252916,471560,8985,17189,105],"class_list":["post-903397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-ai-deep-fake","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australasian-council-of-women-and-policing","tag-australia","tag-bullying","tag-deep-fake","tag-janelle-tonkin","tag-northern-territory-police","tag-nt-police","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=903397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/903398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}