Is it illegal to post his picture on the internet?

[Positive]

The store I work for was robbed at gun point last week. I had to spend all day with the police giving them a description of him because he knew where all of our security cameras were and we ended up only getting bad side profiles or just his body. I found out that he's on crimestoppers. He's robbed several stores at gun point so I went home and spread security pictures from previous robberies where you can clearly see his face. I put it all over my facebook, twitter, everything. I want this guy caught. He scared everyone. Today, I came into work and a customer called and told us she was going to alert authorities that one of our employees had posted it, that it was illegal to post his picture.

So, in summary, the guy robbed my store, I put his picture on the internet to try and get him caught, and a customer is going to authorities over it. Is it illegal to post a criminals picture on the internet when no one knows his name?

Plus, why would she be so upset that I posted his picture unless she knew him? Who is like "OMG HOW DARE YOU TRY TO CATCH A CRIMINAL?"

I just don't get it.....

[James]

It isn't illegal to post a picture of a criminal in your store (although you should get the permission from your manager first - might be against policy).

If anything, the person in the picture would have to demand that you take it down, and that is exactly what you want so that he can be caught. Any complaints to the police would have to come from someone who would be harmed by your actions, and the only possible person would be the armed thief.

[Thomas]

not illegal

[Vivian]

It is NOT a criminal offense. This woman is a loony. The only legal issue here is the robber could sue you for defamation but it would be a stupid argument. He'd have to say you hurt his reputation somehow and that he wasn't the guy from crimestoppers "I only robbed one stores. Not six." Tell her the picture stays and offer to let her use your phone to call the cops. Try to get her name as well since she probably is the robber's wife or sister.

[Vivian]

These are all pictures of the criminal?

A customer is going to the authorities? This customer doesn't care about theft from your store.

Now if other people were in the background, it would be reasonable to blur their faces in the picture, though that shouldn't matter cause it would show they clearly aren't the guy, and it doesn't hurt them in any way, they don't have an expectation of privacy in the store.

You shouldn't be posting these pictures without your boss's permission though. However there is no reason to worry about privacy when these are only pictures of the robber.

The person complaining MIGHT be the robber, the police probably won't care anyways, as if somehow he gets you for violating his privacy, he would be turning himself in for armed robbery... and there is no way the DA would prosecute you.