Websites couldn’t publish jail mugshots to ‘extort’ people under a new NC bill
Law enforcement agencies would be banned from providing jail mugshots to some companies under a bill sponsored by both Democrats and Republicans in the North Carolina state legislature.
The bill comes nearly a year after heightened racial tensions across the country following the death of George Floyd, who died after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for 9 minutes. Numerous newspapers have opted out of publishing most mugshots on their websites since his death, including McClatchy, parent company of The News & Observer, Herald-Sun and Charlotte Observer, saying the practice disproportionately impacts people of color.
Even before Floyd’s death, many newspapers changed their mugshot policies, citing the harm it causes particularly to people who are arrested but not convicted.
Senate Bill 660, sponsored by Sens. Danny Britt, Michael Lazzara and Wiley Nickel, also seeks to minimize that harm. The legislation does not apply to newspapers, but to pay-for-publish websites that require a fee to take your photo down.
“If someone’s exonerated of charges, I don’t think that their potential for jobs or housing should be impacted by information that’s potentially out there from a private party,” Britt said. “I also don’t think that private parties should have the ability to extort people by holding this information over their heads.”
Some companies can require that people pay them hundreds of dollars to remove their mugshots from a site, Britt said.
The bill would require companies remove mugshots upon request within seven days and would penalize sites that fail to do so.
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