A Florida newspaper’s new web site based solely on police mug shots of crime suspects has launched an ethics debate — and evoked memories of the St. Louis Evening Whirl.

Even a single mug shot can be controversial: From time to time, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch hears complains from readers that a mug shot was published simply because the suspect was or was not of a certain race.

Poynter.org addresses the ethics question in an article by Steve Myers. His article notes there are a number of newspaper web sites based on mug shots. Here’s part of Myers’ article:

With some photos and a simple sentence — “Meet 163 people who were arrested in the last 24 hours in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties” — the St. Petersburg Times has sparked intense debate about the merits of showcasing mug shots on a news site.

Tampa Bay Mug Shots is based entirely on information already available from local sheriffs’ departments. But the sleek site is built around the mug shots, not the crimes. Photos of the recently booked scroll across the top of the screen, and below, bar charts categorize them according to gender, height, weight, eye color and the county where they were arrested. Users can search for arrestees by last name or ZIP code, and they can go directly to the official sheriff’s department page that lists personal information for everyone arrested.

Among the questions raised by journalists:

• Is this journalism? Voyeurism? Entertainment? Infotainment?

• Is it fair to highlight people who have been arrested but not been convicted of a crime? What if the charges are dropped or they’re acquitted?

• What are the legal implications of highlighting these people?

• How does this compare to other databases, such as restaurant inspections or public employee salaries, that news sites post online?

• In an age when things seem to live forever online, what impact could this have on people’s digital identities?

And Myers’ article concludes with this memory of the Evening Whirl:

And though the Times’ presentation is new, controversy over unorthodox crime publications isn’t. For years, the St. Louis Evening Whirl chronicled the crime, scandal and gossip of the local African-American community. The paper was unusual, to say the least: lead stories written in verse, crimes described in the form of questions, angry editorials that decried gangland violence. The publication was widely criticized, yet at the end of the publisher’s life, he was inducted into the local black journalists’ association hall of fame.