Mark Hancock was present at a police sting in Beaumont, Texas to arrest people involved in the sex trade in that city. He posted photos and commentary on the incident as well as explaining that it’s legal to show the faces of people under arrest.
Before anyone asks, yes, it’s perfectly legal to show the faces of people under arrest. However, our paper prefers to not to “convict before trial” by showing faces of people caught in orchestrated stings of Class B misdemeanor crimes. Capital crime arrestees are an entirely different situation.
However, everyone got a good laugh when the first female arrived at the command post and told the assembled media that she didn’t give us permission to photograph her (standing on a public street in handcuffs).
Judging by what I’ve seen on news reports on television I don’t think anyone under arrest could have any illusions of privacy with cameras poked in their faces at every turn.
