WCSO App

When Page Slayter was arrested on charges of drunk driving last year, she got lots of compliments. Slayter, a University of Arkansas senior with long shiny black hair and dark eyes, was photographed at the jail and the shot was posted on the Internet.

In the digital age, mug shots are not just kept in police department file cabinets. Intake rosters, charge reports and even warrants are posted on the Internet for anyone with access to a computer to see. Each year young adults are arrested for alcohol-related crimes in Washington County, leaving them with a mark on their record that follows them through life and a mug shot displayed on the Washington County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) app for review by their peers.

Many students have found entertainment in poring over these reports and laughing at mug shots they find humorous. Sundays, after a long weekend on Dickson Street, students check the WCSO app to see who was arrested. The newest update of the app allows users to receive “Push Notifications” of latest mug shots and criminal events. With one touch of a smart phone, detainee information can be posted directly to a Facebook wall.

The main reason for the app’s creation was for “the push notifications for emergency situations. It gets information out to people quicker,” said Kelly Cantrell, an employee at the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and one of the app’s creators.

An unexpected use of the notifications is for the students to obtain the quick information on mug shots rather than for broadcasts of missing children and storm updates.

Nate Rickashaw, a former UA student and a Biola graduate, was asked if he used the notifications.

“I turned those off. They were annoying,” he said. “I only used it for mug shots hoping someone I know would be on there for a good laugh.”

The public perception of the app seems favorable. It received a rating of four out of five stars from users in the Apple App Store.

“I creep through it all the time,” said Michelle Marryship, a UA junior, “my friends all have it too. If I get arrested, I’m smiling in my mug shot since everyone will see it.”

Marryship isn’t the only one who would be smiling.

“I do see a lot of smiling,” Cantrell said when asked if more people are smiling now that mug shots are so public.

A photograph isn’t the only description being broadcast in the Internet booking information; weight, height, age, and charges are displayed.

“I think more girls are worried about their weights being shown than smiling. I’ve seen some mean group texts about mug shots of girls I know,” said Kelly Whitt, a UA junior.

The app is free to download but some question whether or not this will always be the case.

“I like using it, but I hope no one is making money off of it,” said Mary Wilson, a 2012 Baruch graduate, “it’s pictures of people’s mistakes.”

The age of social media offers many mediums for displaying public arrest records and pictures. Typing a person’s name into a search engine allows viewers to see mug shots in the “images” tab. When a charge has been stricken from a record, the Internet still leaves a trace of the offense. Websites such as bustedmugshots.com and justmugshots.com and search engines including Google pull pictures off of detention center sites and charge anywhere between $100 and $500 to remove these pictures.

Undergraduates aren’t the only viewers of the WCSO website and app. After reviewing mug shots and news stories, websites like Bustedcoverage.com write stories on interesting arrests. For example: “SEC, say hello to Page Slayter, the hot chick arrested Saturday for DUI and fleeing a car crash after the Arkansas football game.”

After this article was written Slayter received emails from modeling agencies she said. Slayter referenced the article on her Facebook profile when she referred to herself as “Smokeshow Page.”

Students and Fayetteville natives who have been arrested are also subject to having their mug shots and charges put in a slideshow that is turned into a rap about each offender. A Fayetteville High School graduate, Drake Seaton, created “For the Love of the Mug,” a mug shot parody which mocks each person’s personal life or charges.

The detention center app is a good deterrent said Jessica Shossit, an employee at the Washington County Detention Center. When people are booked, “They freak out because they don’t want their face on the Internet,” Shossit said.

Cantrell agreed and said, “Hopefully, it is a preventative measure.”