A frown for the ages: The Donald Trump mugshot and its significance

Soon after he had been photographed, Trump published the mugshot on X, the platform earlier known as Twitter, which he had used for years to communicate directly with millions of followers until he was kicked off it in the aftermath of the violent attack by a mob of his supporters on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Trump’s Twitter ban was reversed by the platform’s new owner Elon Musk, but the former President had not actually returned to it until Thursday’s mugshot post.

https://t.co/MlIKklPSJT pic.twitter.com/Mcbf2xozsY

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2023

What exactly is a mugshot?

Mug is slang for face, and a mug shot, also spelt mugshot, means any picture of a person’s face. What are referred to as “passport photos” in India are essentially mugshots or head shots.

In the context of criminal investigations, a mugshot is used to describe the picture that police or law enforcement take of a person, usually a suspect, after they are arrested. The picture shows the subject shoulders-up, essentially their head and face.

And why do police need to take a mugshot?

The original purpose was to allow law enforcement to build a photographic record of arrested persons. The tradition of taking pictures of criminals began in Belgium in the 1840s, within a decade of photography itself being invented, to ensure criminals could be tracked for repeat offences. Subsequently, police in several countries started building “rogues’ galleries” of mugshots, and displaying them so that the public could watch out for them.

The credit for making it standard police practice is usually given to the Paris policeman Alphonse Bertillon, who introduced two pictures, a front shot and a profile, along with a description of the subject’s physical features, such as blond hair, or maybe a broken nose or a torn ear. This was referred to as a “portrait parle”, or “speaking image”, and was Bertillon’s way of trying to see through criminals’ disguises.

Anthropometric data sheet (both sides) of Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914), a pioneer of the Scientific Police, inventor of anthropometry, first head of the Forensic Identification Service of the Prefecture de Police in Paris (1893). (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Is it compulsory to take a mugshot upon arrest?

Over the decades, it has become routine for a suspect to be photographed and fingerprinted upon arrest or arraignment. Many suspects are handcuffed as well.

However, this procedure in the US can vary from state to state, and based on whether the person has been charged with a federal or a state crime, or whether they have been arrested or merely arraigned (which is just a formal reading out of the charges before a judge).

Before Thursday, criminal charges were brought against Trump in three earlier cases this year, but Thursday was the first time when he had his mugshot taken.

On June 13 this year, when Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 criminal charges during his arraignment in a federal court in Miami in the case related to his handling of classified documents, his mugshot was not taken — The New York Times reported that law enforcement had said US marshals already had “enough” pictures of the former President on file.

The classified documents case was historic because it was the first time that a former US President faced federal charges.

So what is the big deal about his mugshot being taken in Georgia?

It is procedural. Even so, Trump has now become the first US President, either sitting or former, to not only face criminal charges, but to also have a mugshot in a police file. As stated earlier, this is his fourth indictment, but first mugshot. He has been fingerprinted earlier, though.

Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat had earlier told a local TV station that “normal practices” would be followed with Trump. “Unless somebody tells me differently, we are following our normal practices, and so it doesn’t matter your status, we’ll have a mugshot ready for you,” Labat had told WSB-TV earlier this month.

What else happened along with the mugshot?

The New York Times reported that Trump was at the Fulton County Jail for about 20 minutes for the photographing and fingerprinting. He has been given an identification number, P01135809, and listed as 6’3” tall, with a weight of 215 lbs (97.5 kg), and “blonde or strawberry” hair.

So what is the big takeaway from this episode?

The mugshot is part of procedure, but Trump has used it politically. In the mugshot, he is scowling fiercely at the camera, an expression of defiance and combativeness. Axios noted that “moments after his mugshot was taken, Trump posted the image to his Truth Social platform, along with a fund-raising link”.

He said: “Today, at the notoriously violent jail in Fulton County, Georgia, I was ARRESTED despite having committed NO CRIME… The Left wants to intimidate YOU out of voting for a political outsider who puts the American people FIRST. But today, I walked into the lion’s den with one simple message on behalf of our entire movement: I WILL NEVER SURRENDER OUR MISSION TO SAVE AMERICA… If you can, please make a contribution to evict Crooked Joe Biden from the White House and SAVE AMERICA during this dark chapter in our nation’s history.”

Trump is most likely to be the Republican candidate against President Biden in the presidential election of November 2024. He leads the field of Republican ticket hopefuls by a giant margin, and he ignored the first Republican primary debate on August 23, at which eight candidates participated. Trump could be going on trial just as the election race heats up in the summer of next year.

Does India have a system of taking mugshots after arrest?

Not in an institutionalised way as in the US. Also, practices are not standardised, and differ from state to state. There is also limited control over the publication of the accused’s pictures in the media, except in some specific types of crime.

Officers in the Delhi Police said photos of arrested persons are indeed taken in every criminal case, but they are not released before the test identification parade (TIP), if one is carried out. During the TIP, several individuals, including the arrested suspect, are brought before a witness to confirm the latter’s testimony.

Initial pictures of the accused in the media commonly show them with faces covered with a towel or scarf. After the TIP, police often allow the media to publish photos of the accused. Each police dossier has photos of the accused, along with the FIR number and police station details.

In Maharashtra, soon after arrest, the police take fingerprint and iris scans of the accused to feed it into the Automated Multi-modal Biometric Identification System (AMBIS) system which was launched by the Maharashtra government in May 2022.

The system, which is meant to be implemented across the country, has digital fingerprint scans, iris scans from crime scenes, and criminals arrested in the past by the police. It is intended to help investigators determine whether the suspect is linked to any other crime in which he has not been arrested.

A Kolkata Police official said arrests are followed by the creation of an arrest memo, an inspection memo, and a seizure list (if seizures have been made). The biometric data, including hand prints and iris scans are also recorded, as is the arrested suspect’s photograph.