2012 Without a Mug Shot

Almost every week we get emails from people who want their photo taken down from the mug shots. Yesterday I got a particularly interesting call from a blocked number and a man who didn’t give me his name. (I told him to email me but he never did.)

He said he never agreed to having his photo put on Patch.

First of all, you don’t have to agree to a photo that is public record. They’re open and therefore anyone who wants your mug shot can see it.

Secondly, if it is a “trumped up charge” then you can provide some sort of court or legal statement saying it was a false arrest and we would probably take it down.

Third, we state in the article that everyone should be presumed not guilty. That’s not some legalese that should not be overlooked. Courts rule people as not guilty all the time. These are just all the people who are booked.

We’ve had a lot of comments along the lines of “why kick them when they’re down?”

I’ve gone back and forth on this, and I still think the benefits outweigh the number of people who claim they were arrested on “trumped up” charges.

Here’s the thing: I’ve been told over and over again that the way to reduce crime in an area is for the citizens to be active. You need to know what the crimes are, what people are getting arrested for and who they are. Do you want to send your child through the carpool line with the mother who was arrested on a DUI charge? Do you want the man who was charged with possession of child pornography to be your child’s soccer coach? If they get bonded out then how else will you ever know who has been arrested?

Now I’m going to ease through the rest of this. Wouldn’t it be ironic if I got arrested tomorrow? I know. I would have to run my own mug shot. Yea, I’m terrified of that happening. Alanis Morissette would probably write another verse to Ironic just for that situation.

And yea, I really do think.

So yesterday I tried to mentally put myself in the position that I could get arrested. I don’t speed and I’m freakishly OCD about driving drunk. On New Year’s Eve I hung out at a bar and took one sip of champagne at midnight and was concerned about driving drunk. I’m ever thankful for my Daddy who manages a collision center and took me to see the wrecked cars when I was 15. He made me and my cousins see cars that people had died in—cars that still had blood in the seats and hair and skin in the windshields—to show what can happen if you are driving impaired or distracted. For that reason, I also don’t speed. Seriously, I’ve never had a speeding ticket. I’ve never been in a forward-moving crash either (backed into dang near everything when I first turned 16 though).

I used to text and drive, too. I thought “Oh, I can do that and pay attention.” Then someone told me this: Driving and texting is just as bad as driving drunk. That stuck since I’m so adamantly against drinking and driving.

So probably the only possible reason I would get arrested is a driving-related issue because I don’t steal or stalk or any of that.

I’m getting off topic.

As I do the mug shots each day, there are some things that I see that I didn’t know were illegal.

For that, I’m doing a story later on laws you might not have known about.

There are a lot of those pills-in-other-container laws that some people might not know about. So keep an eye out later for a  story called “How to Not Get Arrested in 2012.”

Other than that, it’s business as usual today. The holidays are over. Georgia lost thein what was quite possibly the longest, most tedious game ever.

Everything is open again. Resolutions are in full swing. You need to go to the gym, if that was your goal. But don’t go tobecause I’m tired of waiting for a treadmill.

Also, bundle up. It got really cold outside yesterday.