Guest Author
A few years ago, at a play group when my children were toddlers, I heard from another mommy that local police published arrest records online.
I was a stay-at-home mom and obviously bored — I was attending play groups. So, during my sons’ naptime, I thought it’d be fun to log into that website and find old friends’ pictures from when we were all in college, and laugh about those crazy times and unfortunate moments when others got busted for youthful indulgences.
After a few minutes, as I continued this trip down memory lane, I got more uncomfortable with every click. The records didn’t provide context. What about my buddy Alex’s charges? They were reduced and the court withheld adjudication. This site didn’t mention that. In fact, I couldn’t decipher anything from the weird language and vague information listed under each arrest.
Which charges led to convictions? Which were thrown out for lack of evidence? The site didn’t say which arrests were the result of an overeager, racial-profiling police officer, and which were the result of a temporary lack of foresight that will permanently remain a nightmare memory for an otherwise upstanding, law-abiding citizen.
I stopped smiling and felt dirty, like I’d been caught reading a BuzzFeed list or listening to Iggy Azalea. I clicked out of that site. Some memories should not be relived.
Since then, that police department seemed to change its policies and now only publishes recent arrest records, cataloguing only current declines, bad choices, and broken lives. With pictures!
Newspapers who can’t afford real journalists started publishing the most hideous mug shots, ensuring that all five of their readers see the tragic consequences of a Ladies Drink Free night at the local bar or what happens when rednecks fight each other over a six-pack and half a cigarette.
That’s not all – mug shot websites started popping up all over the place. They’ll gladly publish these horrifically sad pictures under the guise of informing the public, keeping us aware and on alert when we Google potential mates, babysitters, or bowling partners.
It’s not schadenfreude, people. It’s public service.
Sure.
When I taught at a local high school, students knew more about teachers’ arrest records than the administration — all of which they’d learned online and spread through social media. The kids were terribly short on details about these arrests, but that didn’t stop them from spreading what little they knew to anyone who’d listen.
Adults do it, too. They post snarky “Where Are They Now?” updates on Facebook where barely recognizable faces of former classmates are forever immortalized in a grimace or scowl with case numbers underneath. Mutual friends comment with barely contained glee, “I always knew she’d become famous!”
Of course, there’s a way to fix that — for the right price. Many companies will gladly “bury” or “hide” or “erase” these arrest records and mug shots, for a fee. But if a middle-aged woman is selling herself to bankroll a meth addiction, she can’t afford a decent attorney, much less a misery profiteer who could make the online record of her demise go away.
“Oh well,” I’ve heard people say. “They should have thought about that before…”
Before what? Since when does public shaming or humiliation stop anyone from the grips of addiction, poverty, or bad decision-making? If a person pays his or her debt to society, should we still access their information just because we’re nosy and have nothing better to do?
Can’t people play Candy Crush instead?
And if the charges are dropped for lack of evidence, how does a mug shot documenting a bad call make any sense at all?
In 2013, Florida lawmakers considered legislation that would require websites to remove mug shots or records of arrests that didn’t end in a conviction within 15 days, free of charge. These proposed laws died in committee.
Apparently it’s super fun to look at celebrities getting busted like the hooker down the street. And journalists want an easy way to either fill pages for pain clinic-advertisers or obtain a picture of the latest felon to purchase a gun and go on a killing spree.
But to continue posting mug shots of people who were never convicted, or who were wrongfully arrested in the first place, is irresponsible.
It should also be a crime.
Catherine Durkin Robinson is a political advocate and organizer, living in Tampa. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
