Booking Photograph Privacy Act.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2025
S 1
SENATE BILL 129

Short Title: Booking Photograph Privacy Act. (Public)
Sponsors: Senator Moffitt (Primary Sponsor).
Referred to: Rules and Operations of the Senate
February 24, 2025
*S129-v-1*
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1
AN ACT TO PROHIBIT THE RELEASE OF BOOKING PHOTOGRAPHS. 2
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts: 3
SECTION 1. G.S. 132-1.4 reads as rewritten: 4
"§ 132-1.4. Criminal investigations; intelligence information records; Innocence Inquiry 5
Commission records. 6
… 7
(b) As used in this section: 8
(1) "Records Records of criminal investigations" means all investigations. – All 9
records or any information that pertains to a person or group of persons that is 10
compiled by public law enforcement agencies for the purpose of attempting 11
to prevent or solve violations of the law, including information derived from 12
witnesses, laboratory tests, surveillance, investigators, confidential 13
informants, photographs, and measurements. The term also includes an y 14
records, worksheets, reports, or analyses prepared or conducted by the North 15
Carolina State Crime Laboratory at the request of any public law enforcement 16
agency in connection with a criminal investigation. 17
(2) "Records Records of criminal intelligence information" means records 18
information. – Records or information that pertain to a person or group of 19
persons that is compiled by a public law enforcement agency in an effort to 20
anticipate, prevent, or monitor possible violations of the law. 21
(3) "Public Public law enforcement agency" means a agency. – A municipal 22
police department, a county police department, a sheriff's office, a company 23
police agency commissioned by the Attorney General pursuant to G.S. 74E-1, 24
et seq., and any State or local agency, for ce, department, or unit responsible 25
for investigating, preventing, or solving violations of the law. 26
(4) "Violations Violations of the law" means crimes law. – Crimes and offenses 27
that are prosecutable in the criminal courts in this State or the United Sta tes 28
and infractions as defined in G.S. 14-3.1. 29
(5) "Complaining witness" means an Complaining witness. – An alleged victim 30
or other person who reports a violation or apparent violation of the law to a 31
public law enforcement agency. 32
(6) Booking photograph. – An image of an individual taken by an arresting public 33
law enforcement agency for the purpose of identification or taken when the 34
individual was processed into a jail. 35
… 36
General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025
Page 2 Senate Bill 129-First Edition
(n) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, and except as otherwise provided in this 1
subsection, booking photographs are confidential, are not public records as defined in G.S. 132-1, 2
and public law enforcement agencies are prohibited from publishing, distributing, or releasing 3
booking photographs. A public law enforcement agency may release a booking photograph only 4
when the booking photograph is a record of criminal investigation related to a missing person 5
report. A court of competent jurisdiction may order the release of a booking photograph upo n a 6
showing by the person requesting disclosure that the disclosure is actually necessary for 7
immediate law enforcement needs." 8
SECTION 2. This act becomes effective October 1, 2025. 9