Don’t expect to see mugshots with arrest reports anymore. And the names or other “identifying details” of people charged with crimes may also soon be withheld from the public.
Legislation adopted as part of the state budget package and signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday allows law enforcement agencies to withhold “booking information about an individual, including booking photographs” unless police decide public release of the information will “serve a specific law enforcement purpose.”
The legislation amends New York’s records access law — known as the Freedom of Information Law — to allow local law enforcement agencies to determine that the release of mugshots and identifying detail is “an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
Riverhead Town Police and Suffolk County Police are no longer releasing mugshots to the press.
While the legislation leaves the decision to withhold the photos and information to the discretion of the individual local law enforcement agency, some agencies are interpreting the change as a ban.
“We can release if it serves a legitimate law enforcement purpose — then there can be an exception,” Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller said today. “Like, if you hope more victims will come forward, or to raise public awareness.”
A Suffolk County Police spokesperson said the department “will follow what New York State law says.” The department had not adopted a policy about it, but is following what it believes the statute requires.
Some local law enforcement agencies upstate are continuing to release the photos.
In contrast, state law enforcement agencies, such as the N.Y. State Police and the state attorney general’s office, are now banned from releasing the photos.
The governor proposed the amendment at least in part to clamp down on websites that publish mugshots and charge subjects hefty fees to remove them.
Critics of the new law say it is a blow to long-held principles of American constitutional law pertaining to both freedom of the press and criminal justice.
“It has always been our position that access to booking photos and information is important to the openness of the criminal justice system in the United States,” said Adam Marshall, a staff attorney with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
“Criminal justice proceedings should not be conducted in secret,” Marshall said. “Arrest information and photos are an important part of that process,” he said
“To the extent that there are websites trying to extort people or extract money from them, laws should target those entities trying to exploit people, not cut off the public’s right to access,” Marshall said.
More than a dozen states have laws on the books prohibiting mugshot removal fees.
He said there are many reasons to keep mugshots and arrest information public. “For example, what is the physical condition of a person who’s been arrested? If he’s injured, did his cuts and bruises occur before or after being takin into custody?”
Mugshots have historically been released, Marshall said. The public expects to see photos of those who have been charged with crimes.
If the names of people arrested will also be withheld, as the new law will also allow, an important part of the criminal justice system’s procedures will be plunged into secrecy, he said.
When the criminal justice system operates in secret, important information will be kept from the public, he said.
“Seems like an excellent way to ensure that the arrests of powerful, politically connected people remain secret,” president of the New York News Publishers Association told the Times Union in January, when Cuomo unveiled his proposal.
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