Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1902 — Blow at Rogues Gallery. [ARTICLE]

Blow at Rogues Gallery.

A Brooklyn magistrate is taking steps to circumscribe the rogues’ gallery. He threatens to arrest policemen who take prisoners to police headquarters and photograph them before their arraignment is made. He says that such action is a violation of the penal code. The magistrate also pays his respects to the so-called “third degree.” which he stigmatizes as a relic of the dark ages. His point is that when a man’s photo has been taken for criminal record and the prisoner happens to be acquitted of the crime charged with he suffers an irreparable injury by his portrait being in the possession of the police. The police say they always destroy the negatives if the subject is acquitted, but the magistrate rather doubts this. Ailyhow, he says, the whole proceeding is illegal.