N.Y. floats hiding state arrest record
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York’s governor doesn’t want state police to routinely release mug shots of criminal suspects or booking records that disclose specifically why someone was arrested.
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal is the latest by states aimed at curtailing the so-called Internet shaming industry — websites that claim to be able to remove embarrassing information such as booking mug shots from the Internet for a fee.
Under Cuomo’s proposal, unless there is a compelling law enforcement reason to do so, the public release of booking mugs and arrest information would be refused as “an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
Journalists and some civil libertarians are opposed to such measures, calling them an infringement on the public’s right to know what the government is doing. Publishing, broadcasting or posting mug shots with stories of people arrested in crimes has been a staple of local news coverage for decades.
“Reporting on crimes in our communities is an extremely important function of the news media, and this proposal, as well-intentioned as it may be, would be a major threat to our ability to provide the public with important information that they count on us to receive,” said Jeremy Boyer, executive editor of The Citizen of Auburn, N.Y., and president of the New York State Associated Press Association.
Cuomo’s proposal, which would require legislative approval to change the state’s Freedom of Information Law, only applies to state agencies such as the state police, corrections department and attorney general’s office. Local law enforcement agencies would still have the option of deciding whether to release mug shots and booking information.
More than a dozen other states have enacted laws aimed at clamping down on exploitive mug shot websites by prohibiting them from charging removal fees. South Carolina and a few other states require mug shots be removed from websites at no charge if people provide documentation that the criminal charges against them were dismissed or that they were found innocent.
In California, the attorney general last year charged the owners of a mug shots website with extortion for charging nearly 6,000 people nationwide a total of $2 million in removal fees.