What's the Deal With Tom DeLay's Mug Shot?: Why doesn't it have numbers on it?

article by KEVIN McDONELL here.

 

On Thursday, Tom DeLay reported to the Harris County sheriff's office in Houston to post bond and get fingerprinted. DeLay also posed for a mug shot. The photograph shows a face-forward DeLay grinning; it doesn't show him in profile or holding a placard of identifying numbers. Is this happy-go-lucky photo a real mug shot?

Yes, though advances in technology have made mug shots pretty much indistinguishable from normal photographs. During the last decade or so, most state and federal bond offices have made their entire booking process digital. (For one, most jurisdictions no longer take fingerprints using an ink pad but use biometric scans instead.) Mug shots now typically get taken with a digital camera. The accused's personal identification number (those digits that used to appear on a placard in front of the arrestee's torso) and other data like gender, eye color, and birth date, get recorded on the side of the photo. (You can see DeLay and his booking information in this uncropped version of the photo.)