Regardless of being public record, mugshots should not be exploited to bolster the police department's image. LMPD must be more intentional with their social media presence.
Louisville Courier Journal
Arrested.
Locked up.
Booked.
In jail.
These words are stamped across mugshots in red letters and posted on Louisville Metro Police Department's Instagram. Police say they post the mugshots to show the public they are doing their jobs. But they seem to randomly pick and choose who to feature, based on what they think the public needs to know. And the people pictured haven't been convicted of a crime.
It amounts to public shaming, and posting them is wrong.
Kungu Njuguna, a Policy Strategist for the ACLU, agreed: "[It] is not a helpful way to build trust with the community.”
Community trust in LMPD is sorely lacking, and Louisville has to see tangible reasons to have confidence if it's going to get better. Posting arrest photos does the opposite.
Just because mugshots are public record does not mean they should be exploited to bolster the police department's image. LMPD must be more intentional with their social media presence.
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Do other cities post mugshots on social media?
Police department Instagram accounts from Cincinnati, Nashville and Indianapolis do not have arrest photos on any of their pages and for good reason. Sharing mugshots adds no value to community conversations, and these police departments know it.
LMPD’s Media and Public Relations Commander Sgt. Matt Sanders said the department “wants to show the community arrests that are of public interest.” He used the example of a recent post showing mugshots of five individuals in custody. Sanders said the "East End is seeing an influx in car thefts and garage burglaries," and constituents had reached out to Metro Council. “We want the public to know that we're doing something about that,” he said.
I appreciate the desire to show that the job is getting done, but posting mugshots isn’t an effective way to do that.
Other states agree.
State laws crack down on mugshot use
A California Law just went into effect in January saying police departments cannot share someone's booking photo on social media unless they are an “imminent threat" or a fugitive. If an individual meets that criteria and a department does post that booking photo, it must be removed after 14 days. The law is even retroactive requiring police departments to scrub their social media feeds of any mugshots previously posted over the lifetime of their social media accounts.
In Utah, arrest photos are now considered a protected record and cannot be released until after an individual has been found guilty.
Closer to home, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department's Lt. Shane Foley stopped posting mugshots on IMPD's social media about three years ago following conversations with his peers in other cities. There's “potential harm to sharing mugshot after mugshot, over and over again” he said, "and quite frankly, we didn't want to perpetuate any stereotypes of, you know, the individuals who are arrested."
Foley was in charge of their Public Affairs Office at the time. They don't have a blanket ban on arrest photos, he clarified. The department will still use them if there is an imminent threat and police are actively looking for someone. They also use them with missing persons. “There’s no formal policy,” he said, but “We're not going to use mugshots in association with arrests.”
Is it OK for LMPD to post mugshots?Submit your letter to the editor here.
Instead, Indianapolis chooses to use its social media presence to highlight community engagement and educate the public about the law. As for arrests the public should know about, Foley says, “we want to show the work that we're doing” not images of arrested individuals.
LMPD can learn a lot from Indianapolis' consideration of what's best for all involved.
Social media posts should be intentional
The good news here is that I see effective posts sprinkled in among the arrest photos on LMPD's Instagram account. There’s a post about the recent "Stop the Violence" community gathering for example. Another post highlights dogs rescued during the recent arrest of an individual charged with dog fighting. Instead of a mugshot, I love that LMPD highlighted the good work of the Animal Cruelty Enforcement Unit by showing photos of the dogs they saved. An update in a separate post even shows the dogs in the hands of the Louisville Metro Animal Shelter.
Louisville needs to see more posts like these, and the practice of posting mugshots needs to go.
Where are the photos from the recent Police Activity League bowling night? LMPD Community Engagement Officer Charles Bradley told me 88 kids showed up at Executive Strike and Spare to bowl with police officers. The community needs to see more events like that!
Follow the lead from our peer cities. Stop the public shaming with mugshot posts and respect the humanity of everyone involved. Create the police culture this community wants and deserves.
Bonnie Jean Feldkamp is the community engagement and opinion editor for The Louisville Courier Journal. She can be reached via email at BFeldkamp@Gannett.com.
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