A viewer’s sharp eye has uncovered a bizarre online mix-up involving the Stony Point Police Department’s official website.

The viewer, who asked to remain anonymous, messaged News 12 on Instagram after noticing the department had a photo of a Black police officer on its website under a section titled “Our Officers.” He told News 12 he believed there are no Black officers on the force.

“I know it’s suspect because on their website they have some fake Black dude as one of their officers, and the reason I know it’s fake is because the image appears on another police website,” the tipster wrote.

He was right.

News 12’s investigation confirmed that six officer photos appearing on Stony Point’s site are identical to images used elsewhere, including the Lockport Police Department in Louisiana and even Amazon ads for firefighter shirts. One image, showing a man identified as “Deputy Sheriff Adam Duncan,” appears on eight different websites worldwide.

After News 12 contacted officials, Stony Point Police Department spokesperson Lt. Danny Schoales confirmed that none of the people shown online actually work for the department. He said Stony Point has three Hispanic officers but no Black officers, and that the department is working to update the page while determining how the mistake happened.

To understand what went wrong, News 12 spoke with Steven Franzken, owner of Mid-Hudson Web in Dutchess County, who has been designing websites for 25 years. Franzken said the sites in Stony Point and Lockport likely used the same WordPress template created for police agencies that comes pre-loaded with stock images and layouts.

“They’re both using the same theme,” Franzken said. “When you install it, it comes with a predefined layout and images, so the bottom line is they just rolled out that.”

He added that the photos even contain watermarks - a clear sign they were meant to be replaced.

“That should be a sign to the web designer that they need to change that, and obviously, they didn’t. It’s very amateur and it’s misleading.”

Local residents told News 12 they don’t blame police - they blame the developer.

“The police department is busy enough doing other stuff,” said Maryann Albin, who lives in Stony Point. “The developer should be the one held accountable.”

According to the Stony Point Police Department website’s copyright date, the photos appear to have been online since 2024.

News 12 also reached out to the Lockport Police Department in Louisiana, where the same photos appear, but has not yet received a response.