No, this is not a real photo of a police van with ‘NZ Muslim protection squad’ written on it

This article is more than one year old.
Published on May 20, 2019 at 09:15
Updated on May 20, 2019 at 09:41
3 min read
By AFP Australia

A photo shared on Facebook shows a police van with the text “NZ Muslim protection squad” written across it. The photo is false; the original image was taken in London, England, not New Zealand; the photo has been doctored from an image of a London police van to include additional text.

The image was posted here on Facebook on May 14, 2019 and has been shared more than 130 times after being uploaded by a page called One Nation NZ.

Below is a screenshot of the post:

One Nation NZ does not identify itself as a parody page, according to its description here.

Comments on the misleading Facebook post indicated some Facebook users believed the image was genuine.

The photo is false; it has been doctored from an image of a London police van to include additional text; the photo was taken in London, England, not New Zealand.

Keyword searches found this similar image of a Metropolitan Police van published on photo sharing website Flickr on March 11, 2019.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the Flickr image (L) and the image in the misleading Facebook post (R):

Another keyword search on the AFP Forum found this AFP photo of a Metropolitan Police van published on December 2, 2014.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the AFP photo and the image in the misleading Facebook post (R):

Through Google Street View searches, AFP located the photo in the misleading Facebook post to here next to The Mall in London, England.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the location on Google Street View (L) and the photo in the misleading Facebook post (R):

AFP has circled in red some corresponding features; namely the identical pediment above a window; and the style of the windows on the brown building.

In the misleading Facebook photo, the yellow and blue zigzag pattern on the vehicle has been doctored from an official New Zealand Police vehicle, pictured here on the force’s official Instagram account.

The “Safer Communities Together” text seen on the vehicle in the misleading Facebook photo has also been doctored from an official New Zealand Police vehicle, pictured here on the force’s official Instagram account.

This search for “Muslim protection squad” shows no results on the New Zealand Police’s website.

A reverse image search on Google found the same photo of a London police van had been doctored here to include the text “UK Muslim protection squad”.

This search for “Muslim protection squad” on the Metropolitan Police website yielded no results.

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail