How to get an old mugshot or arrest record removed from people-search sites

An arrest from years ago, maybe one that never led to charges, can still sit at the top of search results for your name, complete with a booking photo. There are more tools for dealing with it than there were ten years ago, but no single step fixes everything, because the same information usually lives in several places at once.

This guide goes through those places in the order that usually works best.

Know where the information lives

Before you start, search your name in a few search engines, with and without your middle initial and city, and write down every page that shows the arrest. They usually fall into four groups:

1. Official records. Court case records and, in some places, police or jail booking logs. These are the source of everything else.
2. Mugshot sites. Websites that collect booking photos from law enforcement and publish them by name.
3. People-search and background check sites. Data brokers that compile public records into profiles and sell reports.
4. News articles. Local news coverage of the arrest, including police blotter items.

Each group has a different removal route. Keep a simple log: the URL, the date you found it, what you asked for, and the response. The research log on our homepage works for this, and everything in it stays in your browser.

Step 1: Fix the official record if you can

Everything downstream is easier when the official record has changed. Depending on your state and your case, you may be able to:

• Expunge the record, which in many states means it's destroyed or treated as if it never happened.
• Seal the record, which keeps it but hides it from the public and most employers.
• Get a certificate showing the charges were dismissed or that you were acquitted.

What qualifies varies enormously. Some states allow sealing of arrests that didn't lead to conviction almost automatically; others require waiting periods, fees and a court petition. A growing number of states, starting with Pennsylvania in 2018, have passed "clean slate" laws that seal certain records automatically after a period without new offenses. Your state court system's website usually has a self-help page on record clearing, and legal aid organizations and law school clinics often help for free.

Get certified copies of the court order or the final disposition. Many of the steps below ask for proof.

Step 2: Mugshot websites

In the early 2010s, many mugshot sites charged people hundreds of dollars to take their photo down. States responded, and since 2013 a long list of them have passed laws on booking photo websites; the National Conference of State Legislatures keeps a summary. The laws generally take one or more of these approaches:

• Banning sites from charging a fee to remove or correct a booking photo.
• Requiring sites to remove a photo on request, often within a set number of days, and sometimes only after the case was dismissed, expunged or ended in acquittal.
• Limiting when police and sheriffs may release booking photos or post them on social media in the first place.

Georgia, Illinois, Oregon, Texas and Utah were among the first states to act in 2013; California, New York, Florida and Louisiana are among those that followed with their own rules. The details differ, so look up your state's statute or ask a lawyer before relying on it.

What to do:

1. Find the site's removal or contact page. Many now remove photos for free on request, especially with proof of dismissal or expungement.
2. Send a short, factual request with the URL, your name as listed, the case outcome and a copy of the court document. If your state bans removal fees or requires removal, cite the law.
3. Never pay a removal fee. In many states it's illegal to charge one, and paying often leads to the photo reappearing on a related site.
4. If a site ignores you, a complaint to your state attorney general's consumer protection office can help.

Step 3: People-search and background check sites

Data brokers usually offer an opt-out process. It's tedious: each site has its own form, some require email confirmation, and records can reappear when the site refreshes its data. Work through the sites that showed up in your search one at a time, and check again every few months.

Several things can strengthen your position:

• State privacy laws. A number of states give residents the right to ask businesses to delete personal information. California went further with a central deletion system for registered data brokers, created by its Delete Act. Check whether your state has a similar law.
• The Fair Credit Reporting Act. Companies that sell background checks for employment, housing or credit decisions are consumer reporting agencies under federal law. They must follow accuracy rules, let you dispute errors, and generally may not report arrests that didn't lead to a conviction once they're more than seven years old, with limited exceptions such as some high-salary jobs. If a background check includes a sealed, expunged or outdated arrest, dispute it in writing.
• Your updated court record. Send proof of expungement or sealing with every request.

Be wary of sites that ask you to upload ID to opt out. If you must, black out everything except your name and photo.

Step 4: Search engines

Removing a page from a search engine doesn't delete the page, but it does stop most people from finding it.

Google has a policy specifically for this situation. It will consider removing results that link to sites with exploitative removal practices, meaning sites that charge to take down content about you. You request it through Google's form for content on sites with exploitative removal practices, listing each URL. Google also lets people request removal of results showing personal contact information, and refresh results for pages that have already been changed or deleted, so an old snippet stops showing your name.

Other search engines have their own removal and outdated-content forms. Once a page is taken down at the source, request a refresh everywhere it still appears.

Step 5: News articles

News organizations rarely delete stories, but several newspapers have adopted policies to review requests to remove names from, or unpublish, old stories about minor arrests, particularly when charges were dropped. Write to the editor with the article link, the outcome of the case and the court document. Ask for an update noting the dismissal if they won't remove the story. An update is better than nothing, and it often shows up in search results.

Avoid the scams

Be skeptical of reputation management companies that guarantee removal for a fee; some are connected to the sites that posted the photo. Never pay someone to remove a photo from a site they say they don't control, and don't hand over your Social Security number to a monitoring service. Most of what these companies do, you can do yourself with the steps above.

If you found this site through an old search result

Earlier versions of this domain are gone, and nothing from them was kept. If a search engine still shows an old OpenPasts result with your name, the page behind it no longer exists. Use the search engine's outdated content tool to have the result refreshed. You can also contact us and we'll confirm in writing that the page is gone.