AURORA | Aurora police will no longer post the mug shots of people arrested for shoplifting and will instead wait until suspects have been convicted to publicly share the images, a police spokesman said Tuesday.
The decision is a shift from a program launched in March that saw people arrested on shoplifting charges have their mug shots posted to the department’s Facebook page after the arrest, but before they had been convicted.
Aurora police spokesman Sgt. Chris Amsler said Chief Dan Oates made the decision after learning that suspects were having their mug shots shared before conviction.
Amsler said police believe posting mug shots of people convicted of shoplifting charges remains an effective tool.
“We still want to get that message out, that if you shoplift in Aurora you are not just getting a ticket,” he said.
The public sharing of the suspects’ mug shots is just one element of a larger pilot program aimed at quashing shoplifting. The three-month pilot program is focused on the area from East Exposition Avenue on the south, East Ellsworth Avenue on the north, Interstate 225 on the west and Sable Boulevard on the east. That area includes Town Center at Aurora, one of the city’s busiest shopping districts, as well as a Target, Wal-Mart and the City Center shopping district.
Officers in that area are working closely with municipal prosecutors to try to get jail sentences for some prolific shoplifters. In some cases, police are opting to file misdemeanor charges instead of felony charges because police say they can secure tougher sentences if they keep cases in the municipal court.
Privacy advocates last week criticized the decision to post mug shots of suspects before they were convicted.
Do you mean to tell me Chief Oates didn’t know what his officers were posting on Facebook until now?
Or, is he pretending he didn’t so he could save face with a public that didn’t think it was right to display pictures of accused pre-conviction?
Which is it?
OMG…oates can’t and won’t answer he is a pretender. Is he really really smart…or really really dumb??
hmmmmm?
Ashley, attorney confirming JUNE 2014.
Open Hearing many APD officers and public know. I will provide exact date, by end of April.
I’m shocked, I tell you. Shocked. While perhaps a bit short of a public outcry, the feedback on this issue has provided APD and the City Attorney’s office with about 30 good reasons for not doing it. But I don’t think anybody suggested it should stop because photos were being “shared” before conviction. As a merchant operating in Southwest Aurora, I tend to suspect that our fearless leaders heard from some rather large retailers that the program was indeed effective– driving shoplifters out of the target area into the u targeted geographical majority of the city. C’mon, Chief Oats. Sometimes it’s just the right thing to do.
Dan Oates is an attorney, maybe there is a reason that he is not in private practice ahhhhhh because he is an idiot! Just a tidbit of information Dan Oates has active Federal Lawsuits against him wonder why?
Federal? Interesting!
Here’s a blast from his past:
When he was the chief in Ann Arbor, one of his female cops turned him in for having her run lights and sirens driving him to the airport.
Under Michigan law, using emergency lights at any time other than responding to an emergency can lead to a misdemeanor charge