Idaho sheriff says he may stop posting mug shots

BOISE (AP) - When Ada County Sheriff Gary Raney decided to post a daily arrest list and booking photos on the Internet in 2003, it was to provide a public service - and a deterrent for people about to do something really stupid, like drive drunk.

The site has become popular, averaging about 200,000 unique visitors a month, and Raney considers it a complete success.

"I don't know how many times I have heard from people that they got a designated driver so they don't end up on our website," he said. "The public deterrence factor is pretty high, especially for DUI driving."

But Raney is now considering removing the site (www.adasheriff.org/ArrestsReport) because of what he sees as an abuse of the public information and service it provides.

Businesses such as BoiseMugshots.com, Mugshots.com and arrestcentral.com "scrape" - or automatically grab information from - websites like Ada County's arrest log, post the photos on their sites and then link to other Web businesses that charge $99 and more for removal.

"I really have heartburn over this," Raney said. "What we do serves a purpose. What they do is self-serving profiteering. ... It's distasteful, extortion-like activity. That is not our intent at all."

"Sadly, this is an industry that deals in pain, embarrassment and humiliation," said Boise attorney Michael Bartlett, who has represented clients who discovered their faces posted on these sites. "This is a business built on what are likely the worst day of these people's lives."

It's also a business that appears to be legal, since what the websites are doing is posting public records. Bartlett said he suspects that as long as the information the sites publish is accurate, they likely are breaking no law. Accusing someone arrested of DUI with, say, burglary or grand theft could be challenged in court, he said.

A Statesman IT staffer was unable to find out where the companies are from or who owns them, concluding that such company information was blocked.

The Idaho attorney general office's Consumer Protection Division has not received any written complaints about BoiseMugshots.com or any similar services, spokesman Bob Cooper said.

Anyone who has been arrested in Ada County in the past year or so has likely ended up on BoiseMugshots.com. It's easy to find someone who has been arrested: Just type in that person's name. Or click on the face of any one of the 75 mug shots on the first page to see a sample page.

A link at the top offers "instant mug shot removal." Click on that, and you go to another site, removemymug.com, which says it will take the picture off the site within 24 hours for $99.

An official at BoiseMugshots.com, who goes by the name Mugshot Barry and answers media questions only by email, said he doesn't understand the negative reaction.

"The intent of the website is not to sell removals, the intent of the website is to sell advertising," Mugshot Barry said. "People love looking at mugshots, they like to see who got arrested. This very data is no different than any news publication that publishes police blotters. ... The difference is, we admit that it is not a journalistic pursuit.

"When someone says our site is unethical, I ask them how? We don't even hide behind the 'It's a public service' excuse," he wrote. "We delete anyone who asks."

Ada County arrest information and jail-booking mugs remain on the county website for five days. In addition to the deterrent effect, a complete daily log makes it easier to handle media requests about arrests, charges and booking photos, Sheriff Raney said.

The site is popular with Ada County residents. So Raney's staff is researching to see if it can encrypt the pictures to keep them available for public view while stopping mug shot websites from automatically downloading them.

Almost every major metropolitan area has similar sites. People who get arrested in Portland have pdxmugshots.com. In Salt Lake City, it's slc.mugshots.com.

Access to the people behind the sites is available only through email. BoiseMugshots.com says "threatening to sue or alluding to any kind of legal action when contacting us will not yield favorable results."

It says if someone is found not guilty or a charge is dropped, the site will remove the picture for no fee, when it gets time and if you email the "scanned paperwork" or a case ID number. The site says it also will remove the photo of someone who has died.

Mugshot Barry said he gets as many as 50 to 100 emails a day from people who want their mug shots removed and he can't keep up. He said removemymug.com approached him in September offering to provide an instant-removal service for people willing to pay.

"We certainly do give enough hints to anyone reading," he said, "that a simple email is all it takes."

Mugshots.com runs in a similar fashion, except it has five "authorized vendors" who will remove a mug shot from the site for a fee that can cost as much as $399. That service does not appear to offer a free removal. There is a sentence explaining that a "licensed U.S. attorney" can ask for a "courtesy removal" for any arrest records "expunged or sealed by the court," but an administrative fee may be required. All other requests for removal must go through one of their vendors.