Office of the Ombudsman
Case 12-00236
In a matter of a Complaint by (Person)
Report dated 19th November 2012
Introduction
This investigation is about a complaint to my office about content on a website called Busted Mugshots, which can be found at http://www.bustedmugshots.com/
Facts
The essence of the complaint is that a photograph of a person was placed on a website kept by Busted Mugshots of a young person aged then 20, who was stopped by the police in a city in the United States because he was drinking an alcoholic beverage. The only step taken was to photograph him, and he was not charged with any criminal offence. Somehow Busted Mugshots obtained a photograph of him and feature this on their website. The person only became aware of this relatively recently because he resides in Europe, and is a citizen of a country in Europe. In the intervening period he had obtained qualifications as a professional person but to his dismay, even after graduation and in applications for jobs he has been shown the page with his photograph, which has been very prejudicial in obtaining employment. He therefore asked Busted Mugshots to remove the photo, and was told that he had to pay either $68 or $108 if he wanted to be removed from the site, or show court documents, presumably showing aquittal. He could not show the court documents because he was never charged with any offence but only photographed. He instructed a lawyer to help facilitate removal of the photograph, but Busted Mugshots simply repeated demands for money and court documents. The lawyer then contacted me to see if I was able to help.
Investigation
To undertake this investigation I have contacted Busted Mugshots to explain that I had no jurisdiction to compel them to do anything, but that I thought was very unfair to maintain the posting of a photograph of someone at age 20 who had never been arrested, and was suffering the consequences. When they replied, Busted Mugshots simply asked me to provide my credit card details and the court documents. I explained again that it was the young man who wanted his details removed and that there were no court documents. They simply repeated the demands and declined to remove the details.
Issues
The issue which I am required to investigate is the fairness of maintaining the posting on the website.
Jurisdiction
This is a matter where I do not have any jurisdiction to intervene. It is very clear that the ombudsman does not have any power over the contents of the website. Normally when I receive such a complaint, I tried to advise the complainant over the appropriate place to make such a complaint. In some cases I do ask if I can facilitate a solution as between the parties, by mediation or other appropriate techniques. It was for this reason that I contacted Busted Mugshots and asked them to remove the photograph and posting about the young man. I was unable to facilitate any resolution.
Reasoning
In the course of this investigation I attempted to facilitate resolution as between the parties, because the continued posting of the result appears to be quite unfair. A momentary lapse of judgment for a young person should not be maintained as a posting on the website 9 years later. Because the young person resides in Europe it is difficult for that person to bring a legal proceeding to require removal in the United States, and extremely expensive. Even the money demanded for removal would in some jurisdictions be regarded in simple terms as blackmail. Certainly the lawyer who referred the matter to me cited a number of references to law which in his view were consistent with blackmail.
Result
I am not able to make any finding about removal, although I have no jurisdiction of course to require removal. But central to the practice of an ombudsman is the principal of fairness. Is it fair to keep this photo posted for 9 years, when the young person did not receive any criminal conviction? Is it fair in the circumstances to require him to pay money to have this removed? I suspect most will find the practice of this website owner distasteful at best. I regret that I do not have any jurisdiction to make a formal finding of unfairness. But I hope that Busted Mugshots will read this report, search their conscience, and remove the post.
Chris LaHatte
Ombudsman