Mug shots would no longer be available as public records in most cases, under a bill advancing in the Iowa House. The proposal is aimed at protecting the privacy of people who are arrested but never charged or convicted of a crime.
Under the proposal (HSB 531), a booking photo would be considered confidential unless a judge makes it public, or law enforcement releases the photo to identify a fugitive or someone who is a threat to the public.
Lisa Davis-Cook of the Iowa Association of Justice told lawmakers in a House subcommittee Tuesday that keeping most mug shot photos private would protect the reputations of people who are never found guilty.
“There's websites, there's social media accounts that are littered with booking shots of people the day after,” Davis-Cook said. “Some of those people the charges never go beyond that, yet those pictures are out there in the public domain that can really harm them in a lot of ways.”
A mug shot would also become public once a person is convicted. But Catherine Lucas of the Iowa Department of Public Safety told lawmakers there is no system to tie photos to the results of a case.
“We think there's a public safety interest in these photos, especially in an age where multiple people have the same name,” Lucas said. “All mug shots in Iowa have the disclaimer that the person is innocent until proven guilty, and we think the system as-is currently works well.”
Rep. Bill Gustoff, R-Des Moines, said he backs the proposal because photos are more likely than other arrest records to become part of a person’s public, online identity.
“People don't go dig in and read criminal records and blotters and dockets, but they do see pictures that were put on the internet, and even if it's expunged you can't pull that down from the internet,” Gusthoff said.
Gusthoff, Rep. Jeff Shipley, R-Fairfield, and Rep. Jerome Amos, Jr., D-Waterloo, all signed off to advance the bill to the full House Public Safety Committee.
