Years ago, law enforcement agencies, including those in Island County, routinely released mugshots of suspects accused of serious crimes.

Newspapers published those mugshots with articles to keep the public informed.

It was a system that wasn’t broken.

Somewhere along the line, lawmakers decided that it was OK to report that a crime was committed but not  release suspect photos.

They broke the system.

Now we’ve come full circle, and state Rep. David Hayes is proposing a bill in Olympia that would make jail mugshots available to the public once again.

The bill is spawned from an Island County case in which a suspect, Garrett J. Edwards, was accused of breaking into a Freeland home and stealing guns, jewelry and electronics.

The victims of the alleged burglary knew a suspect was arrested, but that was it. They were denied access to Edward’s mugshot.

“We investigated every noise within our house and outside. We watched every vehicle that drove past. We watched every individual who walked down our private road. We were living in fear,” Rod Mourant said during testimony in favor of the bill earlier this month.

“So we continued living at home, hearing noises and watching people, and we don’t even know what this person looks like, even if he walked to our front door.”

Rowland Thompson of Allied Daily Newspapers testified in support of the bill. He said Washington is one of only two states west of the Mississippi River that deny full access to booking photos.

If passed, Hayes’ measure, House Bill 1723 will make available to the public the booking photos and electronic images of criminal suspects.

This boils down to a simple case of the public’s right to know — a right that eroded over the years as public-records laws were steadily tightened without real public concern or outcry.

Now the public is waking up and figuring out that withholding public records — mugshots included —doesn’t serve the greater good.

Hayes said his main concern was for victims of crimes, like the Mourants.

“I don’t see this as a big, complicated issue,” he said. “I think it will offer piece of mind to the public.”

Hayes, a deputy sheriff for Snohomish County, said that, under current law, jail booking photos may only be released to the public for “investigative purposes.”

The Island County Sheriff’s Office and Oak Harbor police don’t release booking photos unless the suspects are sought on warrants.

It’s time to reverse this ill-conceived law on the release of mugshots.

HB 1723 is a bill that the Legislature should approve without any hesitation whatsoever.