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Alleged Owners of Mugshots.com Have Been Arrested For Extortion (lawandcrime.com)
Reader schwit1 writes: The alleged owners of Mugshots.com have been charged and arrested. These four men Sahar Sarid, Kishore Vidya Bhavnanie, Thomas Keesee, and David Usdan only removed a person's mugshot from the site if this individual paid a "de-publishing" fee, according to the California Attorney General on Wednesday. That's apparently considered extortion. On top of that, they also face charges of money laundering, and identity theft.
If you read a lot of articles about crime, then you're probably already familiar with the site (which is still up as of Friday afternoon). They take mugshots, slap the url multiple times on the image, and post it on the site alongside an excerpt from a news outlet that covered the person's arrest. According to the AG's office, the owners would only remove the mugshots if the person paid a fee, even if the charges were dismissed. This happened even if the suspect was only arrested because of "mistaken identity or law enforcement error." You can read the affidavit here.
If you read a lot of articles about crime, then you're probably already familiar with the site (which is still up as of Friday afternoon). They take mugshots, slap the url multiple times on the image, and post it on the site alongside an excerpt from a news outlet that covered the person's arrest. According to the AG's office, the owners would only remove the mugshots if the person paid a fee, even if the charges were dismissed. This happened even if the suspect was only arrested because of "mistaken identity or law enforcement error." You can read the affidavit here.
Frankly, arrest info shouldn't be published on the Internet at all, though it should be available to those who go in person to a courthouse. It's inexcusable that a cop's whim can ruin a person's reputation and career, even if all charges are later dismissed or judged as not guilty.
Going after the data pimps is a good first step. Next step should be arresting/suing sheriffs and police chiefs who post such info to the Internet so it can be sucked up by data miners.
Wouldn't it be funny if somebody hacked the site and put their mugshots up on it!
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
I'm not against convictions being available, but tarnishing someone's reputation based on an arrest that may or may not be justified should be illegal. The records have to be available in a courthouse for the defendant to fight the case, but if the case is dropped or the defendant is found not-guilty, they should be destroyed entirely.
Making them available only in person is a barrier to casual searching -- if it's important enough to find out, it's important enough for you to take a trip to the courthouse.