Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
The general court finds that a booking photograph is created as an identification tool at arrest, before any adjudication of guilt; that its public dissemination imposes lasting reputational, employment, and housing harm on persons the law presumes innocent; that commercial republication of booking photographs, including solicitation of fees for their removal, exploits that harm for profit; and that RSA 651:5 already directs that a person whose record is annulled be treated in all respects as if never arrested, a directive that indiscriminate photograph dissemination defeats in practice. The purpose of this act is to limit governmental dissemination of booking photographs prior to conviction and to prohibit commercial removal-fee practices, while preserving in full the right of any person to publish lawfully obtained information.
In this act:
I. “Booking photograph” means any photograph of an individual taken by or at the direction of a law enforcement agency during or in connection with arrest, booking, or detention, including photographs taken during transport or processing.
II. “Law enforcement agency” means any state, county, or municipal agency of this state with authority to arrest or detain, and any correctional facility operated by or for such an agency.
III. “Publicly disseminate” means to release, publish, post, or distribute to the general public by any means, including posting to a social media platform or an agency website and release in response to a request under RSA 91-A. The term does not include disclosure to another law enforcement agency, a prosecutor, a court, counsel of record, the subject of the photograph or the subject’s designee, or use in an identification procedure conducted for a law enforcement purpose.
IV. “Conviction” means a finding or plea of guilty, or a plea of nolo contendere, to the offense for which the booking photograph was taken, entered by a court of competent jurisdiction.
Amend RSA 91-A:5 by inserting a new paragraph [next available paragraph number] to read as follows:
[N.] Booking photographs, as defined in [section 4 of this act as codified], of an individual who has not been convicted of the offense for which the photograph was taken, except as dissemination is authorized under that section. Nothing in this paragraph shall exempt from disclosure the fact of an arrest, the name of the person arrested, the offense charged, the date and location of arrest, or the identity of the arresting agency.
Amend [RSA chapter designated by drafting counsel; the general provisions governing law enforcement records] by inserting a new section to read as follows:
[__:__] Dissemination of Booking Photographs.
I. No law enforcement agency shall publicly disseminate a booking photograph of an individual prior to that individual’s conviction of the offense for which the photograph was taken, unless:
(a) The agency has determined that the individual is a fugitive from justice or presents an imminent threat to another individual or to public safety, and dissemination of the photograph will assist in locating or apprehending the individual or in reducing or eliminating the threat;
(b) A court of competent jurisdiction orders dissemination upon a finding that it furthers a legitimate law enforcement interest; or
(c) An exigent circumstance necessitates dissemination in furtherance of an urgent and legitimate law enforcement interest.
II. A booking photograph disseminated under paragraph I shall be removed from any agency-controlled public posting, including any social media platform, no later than 14 days after the circumstance justifying dissemination ceases to exist.
III. Upon the written request of the individual depicted or the individual’s representative, accompanied by reasonable documentation, a law enforcement agency shall, within 14 days, remove from any agency-controlled public posting a booking photograph of an individual: (a) who was acquitted of the offense; (b) whose charge was dismissed, nol-prossed, or not filed within 12 months of arrest; or (c) whose record of the arrest or conviction has been annulled under RSA 651:5. An agency that learns of an annulment order concerning a photograph it has posted shall remove the photograph without awaiting a request.
IV. This section shall not be construed to limit the sharing of booking photographs among law enforcement agencies for law enforcement purposes; their use in judicial proceedings; the duties of any agency under RSA 651-B with respect to registered offenders; or the release of a photograph of an individual after conviction of the offense for which it was taken.
Amend RSA chapter 358-A by inserting a new section to read as follows:
[358-A:__] Booking Photographs; Removal Fees.
I. It shall be an unlawful act or practice under this chapter for any person engaged in the business of publishing or otherwise disseminating booking photographs to solicit or accept a fee or other consideration to remove, delete, correct, modify, or refrain from publishing a booking photograph or associated arrest information.
II. A person engaged in the business of publishing or otherwise disseminating booking photographs who solicits or accepts any fee or other consideration described in paragraph I shall, without charge and within 30 days of receiving a written request accompanied by reasonable documentation, remove the booking photograph and associated arrest information of an individual who was acquitted, whose charge was dismissed, nol-prossed, or not filed, or whose record has been annulled under RSA 651:5.
III. Each solicitation, acceptance, or failure to remove in violation of this section constitutes a separate violation. Violations are enforceable by the attorney general and by private action, with all remedies available under this chapter.
Nothing in this act shall be construed to restrict, penalize, or create liability for the publication by any person of a lawfully obtained booking photograph or of lawfully obtained information concerning an arrest; to limit access of any person to court proceedings or court records; or to modify the equal right of every person to access governmental records under RSA 91-A. Section 5 of this act regulates commercial removal-fee conduct and removal obligations of those who engage in it, and does not condition, license, or restrain publication itself.
If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of the act that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this act are severable.
This act shall take effect January 1, 2027.
Drafting notes. Section 3 preserves the public record of arrest itself (name, charge, date, agency), confining the exemption to the photograph; this answers the transparency objection raised against HB 125 (2021) and SB 246 (2023). Section 4 follows the structure of Utah Code (H.B. 228, 2021) and California Penal Code § 13665 (A.B. 1475, 2021; A.B. 994, 2023), whose exception and 14-day removal architecture is already field-tested. Section 5 follows the removal-fee statutes enacted in at least 18 states as of 2017 (Stateline, Pew Charitable Trusts) and places enforcement in RSA chapter 358-A, which supplies attorney general and private remedies. Section 6 is drafted against Smith v. Daily Mail Publishing Co., 443 U.S. 97 (1979): the act regulates governmental dissemination and commercial removal-fee conduct, and expressly preserves publication of lawfully obtained material.