Boston website posts mugshots

TheBostonChannel.com has a new feature where it is showing mugshots of people recently arrested. As of this morning, 48 images of people that had recently been arrested appeared on the website. The site shows is the persons booking photo, name, age, town they were arrested by and charge. The website does state that all people are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

It is not uncommon to see a booking photo of somebody charged with a heinous or newsworthy crime. This website shows booking photos of people charged with both serious and relatively minor charges.

I find this very troubling, because in the age of Google once something is on webpage it may be found by anybody at any time.It is not uncommon that somebody does a Google searchon a job applicant or prospective tenant, an employer or landlord sees their will absolutely be influenced after seeing the photos. Unless the website is going to follow up on each and every one of the people they put on their website they should stop this feature. I really do not believethat showing booking photos of people charged with misdemeanor offenses is newsworthy. The potential harm to each person far outweighs any type of value.