Brian Wesley Baugh

UPDATE 01/07/2010

The artist thoughts / project statement below is out of date. Soon I will release a paper I'm working on that adequately describes the intention and ultimate meaning of this project.

The paper is tentatively titled: The Indiscriminate Release of Public Records to the Public during the Information Age: How Mug Shots Are in Danger of Having Their Purpose Permanently Supplanted in the United States and Potentially Everywhere

Check back soon for more updates.

01/14/2010 - Short FAQ:

While the paper is being completed, this may help to briefly describe the motivations of the project:

- the police service's "right to communicate what they wish to the public"
Let me first address this issue, which I hope people who view the project begin to question. Can, or really should, the police (government, etc.) communicate whatever they wish to the public? The government is supposed to communicate with and inform the public. There are even things like the Freedom of Information Act to make sure of they do. But there are also privacy laws; there are also exceptions to the FoIA, protecting that privacy. One issue (of many) I am trying to highlight is that this information, even though it is public record, should not have been released to the public. It violates their privacy, and Exceptions 6 and 7 that specifically prohibit that information from being released is being ignored.

- "run the risk of over saturating people with non news about misdemeanor crimes"
I'm also glad you thought about this issue. People are being over saturated with non news by _real_ news agencies about misdemeanor crimes. Why are they doing this? Is it right? I'm glad it sounds like you don't think so either. See: the Jail Mugs section on The Palm Beach Post website, http://palmbeachpost.com | or the infamous St. Petersburg Times site, http://mugshots.tampabay.com

- "it got you some undeserved attention"
Agreed. I'm not doing it for, personal, attention. What I want is for people to think about these issues.

- "i see this as an abuse of these people's rights"
Also 100% agreed. However, since I am simply re-posting information, what about the author's choice to release the information in the first place? I can only hope the risk of re-posting this information is worth it by drawing attention to the fact that it is being indiscriminately released in the first place.



Police Mugshots (working title) | Spring 2009

UPDATE 6/6/2009: Official Denton Police Department Twitter started.

When I stumbled upon the Denton Police Department City Jail Custody Report page, I was surprised to find that the name, age, charge(s), and mugshot of everyone currently in custody was available to the public. I got to thinking, what if someone I know gets arrested? I wonder if I could be notified of that somehow.

At the same time, we had been learning about New Media in my photography classes. Projects like We Feel Fine and Listening Post especially caught my attention. The live nature of the work was especially interesting to me.

So, when I found Twitter and TwitPic, I saw how they could be a good medium to connect to the Custody Report. Once operational, things started to change due to the increasing importance and power of social media (SM) platforms today, such as Twitter. Half a dozen friends following the twitter feed turned into nearly a thousand followers, and tens of thousands of page views.

The project had changed from its original intentions to an illustration of the power and importance of SM today. It's clear viral marketing techniques and SM are giving the public an easy and powerful way of reading and creating news, in one centralized place for the first time.

View the Unofficial Denton Mugshot Twitter

View history of how many followers followers on Twitter on Twitterholic.

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to twitter me @brianbaugh or email me.

Similar site that posts Gwinnett County Mugshots, except they use their own website where I am using social media.

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Last Update: 4/19/2009
© 2009 Brian Wesley Baugh