Imagine you are searching for your name online to see what is visible to other users and suddenly find a reminder of the past you are trying to forget: a mugshot from a dismissed case. Even though I know I’ve never had such a case, I still have a habit of searching for my name regularly because the internet tends to remember outdated information.
When something like a booking photo appears in search results, the next question is how to remove a mugshot from the internet and how to remove mugshot results from Google.
Mugshot removal is not always as simple as asking the source to delete the content. You first need to identify the original publisher, find possible copies, understand the website’s removal policy, and present legitimate grounds or documentation to have the mugshot removed.
There is also an interesting example of how much attention a mugshot can get. In 2014, a booking photo of Jeremy Meeks, later nicknamed the “Hot Felon,” was posted by the Stockton Police Department and went viral. The attention eventually helped him start a modeling and acting career.
Of course, this is a unique case, and I doubt everyone wants their mugshot to become famous. They want it gone.
What You’ll Learn
This article will guide you through all the steps of mug shot removal for anyone who has faced reputation damage from mugshots:
- Why mugshots appear online
- How to find copies
- How to assess whether removal is realistic
- How to approach the website
- What to do if the site refuses
- How Google and Google Images removal differ
- How expungement affects online removal
- What to do when removal isn’t possible
- How AI can continue surfacing old information
How Mugshots End Up Online
Mugshots usually come from several places. After an arrest, the case is created and stored as part of the criminal record. In many US states, these records are public and can be shared online. They may be published by a police department, included in public court records, reported by a local news outlet, or uploaded to a criminal record database. From there, commercial aggregators, people-search websites, blogs, and forums may copy or republish it. If the person is a public figure, the mugshot gets more shares across social media and news sites.
When official records are copied by commercial sites, removing the original does not necessarily remove all the copies. Before deciding how to remove mugshot content, we need to map where the image appears and separate the source from websites that copied it.
How to Find Your Mugshot Online
Searching for a mugshot is not something most people do regularly. But if you want to know how to remove mugshot results, searching your own name can reveal old information or images you may want to disappear. If you had an episode in your life and want to know how to find past mugshots for free, start with a simple Google search using the following terms.
- Your full name
- Your name + “mugshot”
- Your name + “arrest”
- Your name + “booking”
- Your name + county
- Your name + state
Then check Google Images, other search engines, like Bing, and people-search websites for profiles containing your information. Also, don’t overlook mugshot directories and aggregators.
Some websites organize records by state, county, or other location, making it possible to find an arrest photo even when the original page is not mentioned in Google search results.
This is another reason anyone researching how to remove mugshot results should look beyond Google. Your information may be stored on an aggregator even if you can no longer find the original page.
A quick history of mugshot searches
Over a decade ago, mugshot websites were scraping arrest information, creating pages to rank for people’s names, and charging hundreds of dollars to delete the pages. In 2013, Google made a specific algorithm change that prevented such sites from ranking higher than state records.
How to Remove a Mugshot from the Internet
Learning how to remove mugshot content starts with finding the criminal record, but that is only the first step. The strategy for how to remove mugshot content depends on who published it, why it was published, and the current status of the case. There is no universal answer for how to remove mugshot pages from every website, but these steps are applicable in most cases.
One of our most challenging cases involved a mugshot published by a volunteer-run project that refused almost every removal request. We didn’t send another standard deletion request. Our team instead examined how the organization operated and looked for a legitimate basis that its administrators would be willing to consider.
This is a clear example of the statement we often use that mug shot removal isn’t always about sending a request. Sometimes, understanding how to remove mugshot content requires a deep understanding of who controls the website and what arguments they will consider.
Liza Domrachova
Removal Expert
How to Remove Mugshots from Google and Google Images
Requesting Google mugshot removal will delete content in certain circumstances, but it won’t erase the mugshot from the hosting website. The professional strategy is to first remove it from the source and only then use Google’s Refresh Outdated Content process.
If you are trying to understand how to remove mugshot content and the source refuses to delete it, the process becomes more complicated but is still possible.
Google does not delete a mugshot simply because someone finds it embarrassing or no longer wants it online. For anyone researching how to remove mugshot results from Google, there is a separate removal process for certain types of information. For example, if the page exposes sensitive personal information, this is a legal reason for the Google removal process.
Exploitative mugshot websites
Some mugshot websites that charge a fee to edit out personal content are treated differently by Google.
You can request to edit or delete content on Google by providing the necessary proof for removal. There is an important limitation: Google may remove the link from its search results, but it does not delete the mugshot from the website itself. It means that if someone looks for your name, they won’t find the mugshot website, but they may find your personal information when browsing directly on the website.
Expungement vs. Online Mugshot Removal
Expungement and online mug shot removal are two different things.
Expungement removes arrest or conviction information from public records, but it can’t force third-party websites to update or delete information. Some states may also update or delete the conviction record after expungement but leave the original arrest record publicly available.
If your case has been expunged
An expungement order or other official documentation can be important when requesting mugshot removal or editing. It is documented information about the case’s legal status and provides legal grounds for content removal. If a website refuses to delete the content after expungement, we look for legitimate grounds that may support removal or restriction. Depending on the circumstances, these can include privacy, personal data, or other applicable legal arguments. In some cases, we may involve nonprofit or independent organizations that could support the position we were presenting to the publisher.
If the Mugshot Cannot Be Removed
If you are looking for how to remove mugshot results but the image cannot legally be deleted from the source, the case is not over. You can either turn to a reputation management service for help or spend months working on your reputation hoping that the mugshot will be buried under new content one day.
We approach reputation management through several angles:
✓Exploring legal or privacy grounds for a new request
✓Requesting correction if the information is inaccurate or outdated.
✓Applying for deindexing for outdated data.
✓If removal is not realistic, add relevant content to the original coverage by leaving a reply.
✓Working on ranking with positive and up-to-date information to push the unwanted result lower in search.
One mistake we see is contacting the website directly before deciding how to approach it. A person may find their mugshot and immediately demand its removal. If the administrator refuses, the situation can become harder to resolve. We end up working with a case that has been rejected and have to rebuild a constructive relationship with the website administrators before making another request.
That is why we recommend reviewing the website, its policies, the source, and the available grounds for removal before making contact.
Liza Domrachova
Removal Expert
How AI Keeps Old Mugshot Information Visible
With AI, mugshot surfacing and deleting have become harder. Besides adding another place where old arrest information can surface, Google has new AI Search features that summarize answers directly on the search results page, giving easy access to information, including old and misleading data.
AI search mostly includes ranked information and amplifies it. Once an old mugshot appears in that block, it may have persistent exposure. Deleting this information and updating AI search takes longer than a standard Google information update.
To check whether a mugshot appears on other generative AI platforms, ask the following question: “What publicly available information can you find about [full name]?”
If you find incorrect or incomplete information, go back to the source pages and request content removal.