Does new Oregon law really help remove mug shots from Internet?

No one is perfect -- people make mistakes all the time that result in a police investigation, an arrest and criminal charges. While many of these criminal charges may make their way through the criminal justice system in Oregon, some will not. With the right criminal defense from the beginning of a case, people can get charges dismissed. In some situations, people will be found not guilty of felony or misdemeanor charges and will be released without punishment.

However, in these cases, it is likely that the police have taken a mug shot of the person for their records. These mug shots become public information and can be used for a variety of purposes. In some cases, internet companies have been publishing people's mug shots online and then requesting a fee to have the pictures removed. These pictures were being published whether or not the person was actually convicted of any crime.

In order to curb this destructive practice -- that could ruin the reputation of innocent Oregon residents -- the Oregon legislature passed a new law that went into effect in January. Under this law, these companies are required to remove any picture of people from the site, if people can show that they were never convicted of any criminal charges.

Now that the law has been in effect for a couple of months, however, many are questioning its effectiveness. People claim that many of these companies are oversees and do not respond to any requests to remove pictures. Furthermore, since these are outside Oregon, they are not scared of a threat of litigation. However, many companies have still gone out of business as credit card companies have stopped accepting payments for these types of services and search engines have stopped promoting this content.

Protecting a person's right to be treated as innocent until proven guilty is an important right in Oregon. This law shows just how important it can be, and the long lasting effects that a proper criminal defense strategy can have.

Source: OPB, "Attorneys Cast Doubt On Effectiveness Of New Oregon Mugshot Law," Chris Lehman, March 21, 2014