Spent a few hours at the county jail for a quirky story about why so many people seem to smile for their booking mug shots. One of our reporters noticed that on a given day, about 12% of the people who showed up in the jail log had big grins on their face, which is not exactly what you'd expect on a group of people who had just been arrested. The booking area turned out to be nothing like I expected. Extremely laid back, with a steady stream of people arriving to be searched and fingerprinted, only a few of whom seemed at all upset to be there. The sheriff's deputies were equally relaxed, secure in an area where there seemed to be few flare-ups with inmates. They also recognized quite a few of the new arrivals, whom they called "frequent fliers" for their repeated trips through the familiar process. Turns out people smile for all kinds of reasons. Particularly if they've been there before, they know their photo will immediately appear on the police website where their friends can see it. There are also some tabloids out there where run "best of" galleries of funny mug shots, and people try to make it into there. I didn't stick around for the DUIs after midnight, but I heard they tend to be the most relaxed group...
