AN ACT TO regulate the dissemination and removal or destruction of booking photographs.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  Article 23 of Chapter 15A of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new section to read:

§ 15A‑502.01.  Prohibition on disclosing a booking photograph.

(a)        Definitions. – The following definitions apply in this section:

(1)        Booking photograph. – A photograph or image of an individual who is alleged to have committed a crime that was taken by law enforcement at the initial booking.

(2)        Publish‑for‑pay publication. – A publication that requires the payment of a fee or other consideration in order to remove or delete a booking photograph from the publication.

(3)        Publish‑for‑pay website. – A website that requires the payment of a fee or other consideration in order to remove or delete a booking photograph from the website.

(b)        Disclosure. – A law enforcement agency may not knowingly disclose a copy of a booking photograph of a defendant pretrial to any publish‑for‑pay publication or publish‑for‑pay website. However, nothing in this section shall prohibit a law enforcement agency from posting a booking photograph on the agency website or mobile application.

(c)        Removal. – A publish‑for‑pay publication or publish‑for‑pay website shall remove and destroy a booking photograph of any individual who submits a request for removal and destruction, as provided in G.S. 15A‑152(a1). An entity that seeks to condition removal or destruction of a booking photograph, on the payment of any fee or other item of value, may constitute a criminal offense.

(d)       Civil Liability. – In addition to any other punishment or penalty available under the law, failure of a publish‑for‑pay publication or publish‑for‑pay website to remove and destroy a booking photograph in accordance with subsection (c) of this section may result in civil liability as provided in G.S. 15A‑152(c).

SECTION 2.  G.S. 15A‑152 reads as rewritten:

§ 15A‑152.  Civil liability for dissemination of certain criminal history information.information and booking photographs of defendant pretrial.

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(a1)      Duty to Remove and Destroy Booking Photograph. – A publish‑for‑pay publication or publish‑for‑pay website, as defined by G.S. 15A‑502.01, shall remove and destroy any booking photograph within seven business days of receiving notice to remove the booking photograph if both of the following conditions are met:

(1)        There is no criminal conviction related to the arrest that generated the booking photograph.

(2)        The individual submits with the request written documentation that the criminal charge related to the arrest that generated the booking photograph resulted in a dismissal, acquittal, expunction, or that the grand jury returned no true bill on a proposed indictment.

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(c)        Civil Liability. – A private entity subject to the provisions of this section that disseminates information in violation of this section is liable for any damages that are sustained as a result of the violation by the person who is the subject of that information. A person who prevails in an action brought under this section is also entitled to recover court costs and reasonable attorneys' fees. This subsection does not apply to an entity regulated by and subject to the civil liability remedies of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681, et seq., or the Gramm Leach‑Bliley Act, 15 U.S.C. 6801‑6809, et seq.

In addition to any other punishment or penalty available under the law, a publish‑for‑pay publication or publish‑for‑pay website that fails to remove and destroy a booking photograph in accordance with G.S. 15A‑502.01 is liable for any damages that are sustained as a result of the violation by the person who is the subject of the booking photograph to include, at a minimum, one hundred dollars ($100.00) per day for each day after the deadline described in subsection (a1) of this section on which the booking photograph is visible or publicly accessible in the publish‑for‑pay publication or the publish‑for‑pay website. A person who prevails in an action brought under this section is also entitled to recover court costs and reasonable attorneys' fees.

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SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective December 1, 2023, and applies to each of the following:

(1)        Disclosures of booking photographs by a law enforcement agency occurring on or after that date.

(2)        Requests for removal and destruction submitted on or after that date.

(3)        The conditioning of removal or destruction of a booking photograph on the payment of any fee or other item of value occurring on or after that date.

(4)        The failure to remove and destroy a booking photograph in accordance with G.S. 15A‑502.01 occurring on or after that date.