Sheriff: NC sheriffs’ group wants to let companies profit off jail mugshots.

Profiting from someone’s misery and pain is an ugly business. But that’s what a handful of shadowy companies do when they solicit booking photos, or mugshots, from law enforcement agencies and then publish them, usually online, in order to make a profit.

They charge people hundreds or thousands of dollars to remove their photos from publications or websites. Many states have passed laws to end this extortion-like practice. North Carolina is poised to do the same, but the powerful N.C. Sheriffs’ Association (NCSA), of which I am a member, is standing in the way.

As Mecklenburg County sheriff, and someone who has been involved in thousands of arrests as a longtime police officer, I disagree with the NCSA and fully support not letting companies profit off mugshots.

Why would someone want to have their mugshot removed from the internet? Because the charges that led to their arrest were later dismissed, they were found not guilty, their record was expunged, or, they simply didn’t want to be permanently scarred by a digital scarlet letter.

Having a mugshot live forever on a website can affect a person’s job prospects, housing and other opportunities, not to mention their reputation.

There is a bipartisan bill, Senate Bill 660, pending in the N.C. General Assembly that aims to limit the ability of private companies to profit off of someone’s unfortunate situation. Like laws in other states, the bill prohibits publish-for-pay companies from receiving mugshots from law enforcement. It also requires those companies to remove and destroy the booking photo of someone upon request if the charge was dismissed, ended in a not guilty verdict, or was expunged.

The bill doesn’t get in law enforcement’s way; it only limits the sharing of photos with someone who plans to profit from using them. Law enforcement can still use and share a mugshot if its “disclosure is necessary for law enforcement purposes,” among other justifications.

Because SB 660 increases fairness and doesn’t impact public safety, it has wide bipartisan support, passing a “second reading” in the Senate in late April by a 47-1 vote. Unfortunately, the NCSA says it opposes SB 660 in its entirety because it doesn’t want any limitation on how to distribute mugshots.

This isn’t the first time that I, as an elected sheriff, have disagreed with the NCSA. In 2019, the NCSA supported a controversial immigration enforcement bill over my and other sheriffs’ objections. In 2021, over objections from me and other sheriffs, the NCSA’s lobbyist worked behind the scenes to create new barriers for families of people killed or injured by law enforcement, denying them access to video footage of what happened.

Senate Bill 660 does not affect law enforcement’s ability to do its job. The NCSA position is inconsistent with the interests of those they swear to serve and protect.

Mugshots aren’t created to be exploited by unaccountable private companies to extort people who’ve been arrested. The NCSA shouldn’t be wielding its powerful influence to carry the water for these shady businesses and derail this important and overdue legislation.

NOTE: In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in 2020, many newspapers opted out of publishing most jail mugshots on their websites because the practice disproportionately impacts people of color. McClatchy, parent company of The Charlotte Observer, (Raleigh) News & Observer, and Durham Herald-Sun, adopted a policy in 2020 that significantly limits the use of mugshots in any form.