4 ms·

I didn't see mention anywhere in the article regarding why the police releases the mugshots - I'm told by people working in legal professions that it's actually

I didn't see mention anywhere in the article regarding why the police releases the mugshots - I'm told by people working in legal professions that it's actually a means of ensuring that the police aren't overstepping their bounds and that people aren't disappearing into jail without a valid conviction in court. By making all of the information public regarding who they arrested the police can't deny arresting them later on; by releasing the information about why he or she was arrested, the public can verify that the police are arresting people for legitimate reasons. This is useful to the public, but I think it's implemented in too naive a fashion. It takes sensitive data about me and broadcasts it out everyone, any one of which could store it indefinitely and rebroadcast it indefinitely. You can't just not release the information for the aforementioned reasons. You can disallow rebroadcasting the information - if I can't release it to others, then the police could potentially take the information down after a few days, make you disappear, and then we're back at square one. I think in this case the danger of misuse by third parties outweighs the danger of police abuse. Maybe there's a better way of keeping the police force accountable?

judk 13y ago
If the police yank a mugshot, then the can't take action against someone publishing the "missing" mugshot, so no problem there.
MichaelGG 13y ago
First, some counties publish special lists of, for instance, men attempting to or procuring prostitution services aka "johns". So there's probably a fair amount of shaming and threat they get from this. Police are known to threaten arrest because even if they drop all charges just going to jail (especially on a weekend) can be an unpleasant experience, and there's little blowback for them. Second, if the police want to disappear people, they'll just not save that arrest record. The publishing of a log only is only useful for cases where the police decide to "disappear" you after they've arrested and processed the subject. Even then they could release someone, document it, then pick them up around the corner for "disappearing".

judk 13y ago

If the police yank a mugshot, then the can't take action against someone publishing the "missing" mugshot, so no problem there.

MichaelGG 13y ago

First, some counties publish special lists of, for instance, men attempting to or procuring prostitution services aka "johns". So there's probably a fair amount of shaming and threat they get from this. Police are known to threaten arrest because even if they drop all charges just going to jail (especially on a weekend) can be an unpleasant experience, and there's little blowback for them. Second, if the police want to disappear people, they'll just not save that arrest record. The publishing of a log only is only useful for cases where the police decide to "disappear" you after they've arrested and processed the subject. Even then they could release someone, document it, then pick them up around the corner for "disappearing".