A file image of a Pima County Jail inmate.
Update: A previous version of this story said the Pima County Sheriff’s Department was still reviewing the court ruling for legal ramifications. The story has since been updated to reflect a final decision.
On Tuesday, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department announced they will no longer post inmate booking photos online following a ruling that found the practice to be a violation of pretrial detainees’ right to be presumed innocent.
“Effective immediately, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department will cease the release of booking photos in any format. This policy update also includes the removal of the inmate-booking tab on our website. We understand the impact this may have and appreciate your understanding and cooperation as we adapt to these new legal requirements,” Public Information Officer Adam Schoonover wrote in an email.
Last week’s decision from the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals focused on the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office policy of posting booking photos of inmates on the Department’s Mugshot Lookup website.
According to the court opinion, the Maricopa Sheriff’s Department posted mugshots and personal inmate information including sex, height, weight, hair color, eye color, and arrest charges on the site for 72 hours, even if the detainee was released before then.
Circuit Judge Marsha Berzon wrote the photos on the Mugshot Lookup website can be easily scraped and stay indefinitely on other websites, even if the person arrested is not prosecuted or convicted of a crime.
“The result is public exposure and humiliation of pretrial detainees, who are presumed innocent and may not be punished before an adjudication of guilt,” Berzon wrote.
Pima County joins several other counties across the state that have changed policies due to the new legal precedent. A Facebook post from the Cochise County Sheriff's Department said they are removing the "Mugshot" and "Inmate List" tabs from their website. Yuma and Gila counties have also stopped posting photos due to the ruling.
PCSD’s previous policy included that mugshots were posted on the County’s Inmate Lookup page for the duration the inmate is in the Pima County Adult Detention Center, and afterward upon request.
“The Pima County Sheriff’s Department doesn’t do what the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department was doing. No Personally Identifiable Information outside of name, photo, age, bond, and reference court case numbers are posted,” Schoonover wrote in an email before Tuesday’s policy change.
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