Louisiana Mugshot Law May Soon Change… Again

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For years, local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies released mugshot photos of arrests that had been made by that agency.  There were very little, if any, restrictions on the release of a mugshot, and they were subsequently published in print publications and on online sites as a matter of public record.

But in 2022, then-State Rep. Royce Duplessis (D-New Orleans), authored a bill placing massive restrictions on the publication of mugshots.  According to a 2022 article in Stateline.org:

The original Louisiana measure would have stopped law enforcement from releasing photos prior to conviction with only narrow exceptions for someone deemed a fugitive or a danger to the public. The Senate amended the bill to add exceptions for people accused of certain crimes, including sex offenses, human trafficking or cruelty to animals. 

But Louisiana State Senator Alan Seabaugh, (R- Natchitoches, LA) has introduced Senate Bill 24, which would repeal the bulk of Duplessis's 2022 legislation.  Seabaugh told KEEL News on Thursday:

Jayson Richardson, Sheriff from Desoto, came to Baton Rouge to testify in favor of my bill, said there's so many limitations on what you can release, what you can't release, when you can release it, you have to take it back down under certain cirmcumstances, that  it would take a couple of full-time employees just to sit there and evaluate the law and decide, 'is this one we can release, or is this one we cannot,' so they just opt in favor of not releasing any.

Seabaugh continued:

A really good example, and I used when I presented it on the Senate floor  a couple of weeks ago... there was a guy arrested on 2 counts of 2nd degree murder in New Orleans.  And there was the booking sheet that they released that showed 2 counts of double murder, and showed all of his information, but it said, "Photograph or mugshot redacted due to Act whatever of 2022."

Well, they certainly could have released that.  2 counts of double murder qualifies as a violent crime that could have been released.  So we contacted them and they said, "Well, we just don't release any."

 

Seabaugh said he added back the provision of the 2022 law that prohibits the release of booking photos to so-called “remove-for-pay” publications and websites.  Seabaugh's bill has already passed in the Senate, and now heads to the House floor for debate.