Are all mugshots in the public domain?
Public records laws vary from state to state in the United States. In southwest Washington, some people are cited and released instead of booked upon arrest. I don’t think they always have their mug shots taken, but I’m pretty sure the law enforcement agencies can still draw up driver’s license photos. I can imagine some reasons why information surrounding an arrest might not be a public record right away. Most law enforcement agencies can circumvent public records laws by citing an ongoing investigation. Until they get a conviction, they can continue to make this claim, though technically if they aren’t investigating anymore they shouldn’t be able to. If you want to get a copy of a mugshot, the steps you need to take will vary. Assuming that the person you’re interested was arrested and booked at a local jail (as opposed to a federal facility), call county corrections office and ask how you can go about getting a mugshot. Sometimes they’ll be able to provide it right away, other times
The police typically release mugshots because it leads to more stories along the lines of “Heroic cops arrest bad guy; public should give cops raises and free doughnuts”. The NYC police used to take arrestees on extra perp walks for the press. That is, they’d arrest someone, call the news media, when the media arrived and set up they would take the guy out of his cell, walk him down the street, turn around, walk back to the police station with media filming it, and put the guy back in his cell. The 5 o’clock news would then show John Doe “being arrested”. Same theory – good press for the police. If the mugshot is bad press for the police (police chief being arrested) or no good press (your buddy being arrested for loitering, news media not interested), you can expect a much more difficult time getting hold of the information. FOI request and fight for it.
