Police Department Tweets Every Arrest

Twitter can be used for all sorts of things.  Some use it to inform friends.  Some use it to look for parties, and some use it to show everyone being booked by a police department.  The later would be what the Denton police department does.

There is a Twitter page located here that lists every arrest this Texas city has, complete with mugshot photo.  It should be noted that this is an unofficial Twitter feed from the Denton police department, but still an interesting case study.

To be honest I’m torn on this idea.  On one hand, this is all public information, not unlike that shared at The Smoking Gun.  On the other hand, I have to use a little empathy on whether or not I would like my mugshot posted online if I  were to be arrested tomorrow.

For someone reason I think back to the failed experiment of, in my opinion, one of the worst sheriffs in history, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Phoenix, AZ.  Sheriff Joe thought it a good idea to set up webcams in the jails.  These webcams would be pointed at the cells, so as to further embarrass people that have been arrested.  Not exactly a shocking idea from a sheriff that makes inmates wear pink underwear.

But the problem comes when you concern yourself, as the sheriff clearly doesn’t, with things like due process, and innocence into proven guilty.  The fact is, most of the people sitting in a jail cell have not yet been convicted of anything.  They are arrested and given a trial date.  So to embarrass people who haven’t been convicted of anything... well that’s just embarrassing innocent people for no real reason.

And just because this information is publicly accessible, should it be a task taken on by the already over burdened police department, to disseminate it.  I’m not sure were the public interest is in this.

Let me know your thoughts on this.