Student posts police mug shots on Twitter

Before the world leaped onto the Internet, an arrest for a relatively minor infraction might go unnoticed in your town. Now, especially if you live in Denton, Texas, anyone with computer or cell phone access might see your mug shot.

Last week we posted an Associated Press story about how police departments, including Baltimore’s, are using Twitter to send text messages to computers and mobile phones.

Two weeks ago we blogged about how rapper Jim Jones reported on Twitter while he was arrested.

Here’s another new use of the social network medium: If you have a Twitter account you can “follow” (subscribe to) what seems to be the Denton, Texas, police department’s Twitter account to see mug shots of arrested people soon after they’re booked at headquarters.

But, although the police department says it’s considered signing up for Twitter, it hasn’t yet. The account belongs to a University of North Texas art major who uses software to pull the mug shots from the Denton PD’s online jail custody report.

On Sunday the Twitter site added people arrested for such infractions as speeding, driving with an invalid license, theft, marijuana possession and DUI. It should be emphasized that these were not convictions.

Over the weekend the following was posted by the student, Brian Baugh:  Considering a compromise due to the media attention: remove pictures once released from jail. What do you think?

Also, the police department’s insignia was removed from the page, which was renamed “Unofficially Denton (Denton Police).” The department had said that it wanted the world to know that posting the mug shots there was not its idea.

Baugh told the Dallas Observer that all he’s doing is publishing public information he was surprised to find so easily. “I guess I’m happy that it got popular,” he says. “I didn’t expect that to happen. I thought it would just be a thing with my friends.”