For the past two years, the weekly newspaper Busted has been publishing the photographs of people who have been arrested locally, in part, says the editor and publisher, to humiliate people into behaving. While he freely admits that it is a "trashy tabloid" and puts a disclosure on the front cover that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, it is possible that many people in McDonough may not realize an arrest is different than a conviction.

This blog has mentioned before how certain crimes, such as felony DUI, can cause considerable damage to your reputation. Even the accusation alone can affect how Georgia employers view you and make it difficult to maintain or find a job. The more public the accusation, the more likely it is that your life will be influenced by a simple arrest.

In some situations, Busted may use wording that makes your arrest seem much more serious than it is. For example, if someone had previously been arrested on a drunk driving charge but was unable to attend his or her hearing in court, he may get in trouble if he is subsequently arrested for speeding. A police officer may run the driver's information and take him or her into custody for missing the court appearance and the paper could say the driver was arrested in relation to a DUI charge.

Although most counties in Georgia and across the United States have arrestees' "mug shots" as part of the public records, there is a difference in making the photographs public and publishing them in a weekly newspaper. Instead of requiring interested individuals to dig through the public records, anyone could just pick up the tabloid in a supermarket and discover that his or her neighbor had been arrested.

It is important that everyone be given the opportunity to explain his or her story after police arrest them. Whether police ultimately choose not to press charges or a suspect goes on trial, a publication that associates a suspect to a crime makes it more difficult to give the person a fair trial.

Source: Pioneer Press, "You got your picture in the paper? Oh, that paper..." Bob Shaw, Feb. 5, 2012