11. Mug shots.

Access appears discretionary.  See Cal. Ops. Att’y Gen. 03-205 (2003)(sheriff has discretion to furnish copies of mug shots to public or media but once released a copy must be made available to all who make request). In California, law enforcement agencies routinely make mug shots available to the press. Indeed, in  People v. McCloud, 146 Cal. App. 3d 180, 182, 194 Cal. Rptr. 75 (1983), the only published California case regarding mug shots, the court recognized that mug shots are routinely made available to the press and public and that this practice provides a variety of benefits to the public and the law enforcement system, as evident from the arrests at issue which “were brought about through the publication in a daily newspaper, of their mug shots taken after some earlier arrest.” The McCloud case does not discuss access to mug shots pursuant to the CPRA. It holds instead that mug shots are not part of the criminal summary history (“rap sheet”), which is a confidential record under Penal Code Section 13300.