New mug shot website law to take effect July 1

When a quick Google search can quash one’s hopes of obtaining a job or apartment, a new law is designed to help those who have been arrested but not convicted of crimes.

The law, which takes effect July 1, bars websites from demanding a fee in exchange for removing arrest mug shots.

But one of the law’s sponsors, Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, said it will be hard to enforce because many of the companies that post arrest photos online — on websites like mugshots.com or mugshotsonline.com — are based outside the state or country. “Admittedly some of these companies, I’m told, are pretty good at hiding themselves,” he said.

He expects some lawyers will band together to form class-action lawsuits. “It gives them stronger tools to go after these guys who are really just modern day extortionists,” Plakon said.

The law targets companies that keep photos of innocent people online forever, harming their reputations if someone does a Google search on them. To charge a fee to remove the photos is akin to demanding ransom, Plakon said.

It allows a person whose arrest photo is posted on a website to request that the image be taken down. The company is required to do so within 10 days or face a daily $1,000 fine, plus attorney fees and court costs.

The law allows individuals to sue the companies.

Lawyer Mark NeJame said his office receives calls daily about removing mug shots. He said he doubts the law will be effective without the possibility of mug shot site owners being charged with a crime.

“The civil aspect I don’t think has enough teeth in it,” he said.

“It’s going to take the fear of criminal prosecution to strike the fear in these predators.”

The California attorney general filed extortion and money laundering charges in May against four Florida men who owned and operated the website mugshots.com. It charged $64,000 in fees to about 175 people in California over two years and about $2 million from nearly 6,000 people nationwide, California prosecutors alleged.