Michigan newspaper chain to stop using mugshots
Eight Michigan newspapers under the ownership of MLive Media Group will stop publishing mugshots alongside crime stories, joining a growing movement in both media and law enforcement to fight the negative stereotypes that are influenced by these photos.
“Practices that we have followed for decades are due for a fresh look,” John Hiner, vice president of content at MLive Media Group, told readers in a letter from the editor. “Upon such review, we have determined that the reflexive use of mugshots does more to foster negative perceptions than to provide understanding to our readers.”
MLive’s publications cover several cities across the state, including Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, Saginaw, Flint, Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Bay City and Jackson.
Mugshots, or booking photos, are taken when a person is arrested and are often released to the public, regardless of whether or not the subject is actually being prosecuted for their alleged crime. Even if a person is innocent, their mugshot can live forever on the internet, where viewers will make an unfair association between the subject of the photo and crime.
This problem disproportionately affects Black Americans, and contributes to racial stereotypes, because researchers say Black people are more likely to have their cases dismissed after an arrest.
“Police will stop and search Blacks at a lower threshold of suspicion in the first place and so, their arrests are more likely to be unsubstantiated,” Jack Glaser, a public policy professor at the University of California Berkeley, told NBC earlier this month when San Francisco police ceased the practice of releasing the photos.
“We have to listen, and we have to change,” Hiner said. “That is a theme across America in this tumultuous period of social-justice awakening that has occurred since George Floyd was killed by police officers in Minneapolis on May 25.”
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