The social media post that links the cop to Trump is false

Indianapolis, Indiana – A post on X that purports to show that one of its commanders is the former president Donald Trump’s probation officer is untrue, according to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

More than 8,000 people have shared the post since it was uploaded on June 1 by an X user going by the moniker Jack E. Smith. The image features Nikole Pilkington, the Southwest District Commander of the Illinois Police Department, dressed in her uniform. The text reads, “Meet (fake name): Trumps Probation Officer.”

Trump has not yet received a punishment despite being found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business documents in New York last month.

Former FBI agent Doug Kouns is currently the owner of Veracity, a cybersecurity company. He asserts that the image was probably stolen from the IMPD website.

Kouns said that since Trump is a divisive political figure, the post might endanger Commander Pilkington’s life.

“You put something like that out there, it generates some hate some threats and perhaps somebody takes action on that; I would be concerned that person could be facing some kind of criminal consequences,” Kouns said.

In a statement on Tuesday, IMPD asked users not to spread the post on X.

“IMPD is aware of a photo of Southwest District Commander Nikole Pilkington circulating on social media. No IMPD officer nor Commandeer Pilkington has been involved in the New York Trump case or has been assigned as a probation officer in this case. We ask that social media users stop sharing her photo and report any posts with Commander Pilkington’s photo to the appropriate social media platform.”

“I believe Twitter has a procedure where they can shut something like that down, it’s really hard; you can’t just turn a switch and make it go away, because that can get posted and reposted for days,” said Kouns.

If Pilkington has received threats as a result of that post, IMPD would not comment.