By Megan Matteucci
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ATLANTA — The DeKalb County sheriff says a computer glitch caused the county to inadvertently post a man’s photo with hundreds of other people’s arrest records.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned the same man’s photograph is posted on most inmate records for anyone booked in the jail before 2000.
It’s unclear who the man is or when he was booked in the jail.
Sheriff Thomas Brown said he started the jail’s website when he took office in 2001. His department did not scan in any booking photographs prior to his election, and somehow the same man’s photo got posted online instead.
“It is some type of glitch in the system that they are trying to find and correct,” Brown told the AJC on Friday.
The unknown man’s photo appears on the jail’s website for hundreds of arrests — including a man named Thomas Brown who was charged with DUI in 1990 and a woman named Daisy Brown charged with disorderly conduct in 1986.
The same photo is also posted for a George Bush charged with public drunkenness in 1983, a Michael Jackson charged with credit card fraud in 1986, and a Larry Johnson charged with forgery in 1998.
The AJC discovered the mistake while searching for inmate photos. Brown said he has ordered his information technology staff to research the problem, but he suspects the mysterious man was the first person booked in the jail when the department started the website.
“It should say no photo available,” Brown said. “We have not taken down individuals’ pictures and inserted someone else’s picture deliberately.”
Copyright 2010 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution