How Do I Get My Mugshot Taken Down? Websites, State Laws, and Google's Removal Form

Why booking photos spread so fast

When someone is booked into jail, many agencies post the photo, name, and charges online. Private sites collect those posts automatically, sometimes within hours, and republish them under the person's name on pages designed to rank in search. The same photo can end up on several sites at once, and in the Images tab, long after the case is over.

So the first job isn't sending requests. It's understanding how many copies exist and which ones people actually see. A single request to the most visible site may not be enough if the same photo sits on three others.

Step 1: Find every copy

Open a private browser window and search your full name in quotes with each of these: mugshot, arrest, booking, the city or county of the arrest, and the year. Check the Images tab for each search, since booking photos often rank there on their own. If you have the photo, a reverse image search in Google Lens or another image search tool can turn up copies with different captions.

Make a simple list: the page address, the site name, the date you found it, whether it shows your photo, and whether the page offers a removal form or asks for money. Take a full-page screenshot of each with the address visible. If a site later demands payment, those screenshots are your evidence.

Step 2: Get your case outcome on paper

Contact the clerk of the court in the county that handled your case and ask for a certified copy of the disposition, which shows how the case ended. If charges were never filed, ask the prosecutor's office or the arresting agency whether they can confirm that in writing. If your record was sealed or expunged, get a copy of the order.

If you haven't looked into sealing or expungement, now's the time. Many states allow it for arrests that didn't lead to conviction and for some convictions after a waiting period. Legal aid offices and record-clearing clinics can tell you whether you qualify, often at little or no cost. This is general information, not legal advice; an attorney can tell you what applies to your case.

Step 3: Send a short, documented request

Most private mugshot sites have a contact address, a removal form, or a page explaining their process. Use it. Keep the message brief: your full name and date of birth as listed, the arrest date and agency, the exact page address, how the case ended, and what you're asking for, which is removal of the photo and listing. Attach your disposition or sealing order. If your state has a law that applies, name it in one sentence.

Be calm and factual. Don't threaten action you aren't prepared to take, and don't overstate your case's outcome. If you don't hear back in two to three weeks, send one follow-up with the same documents, and note the dates of both messages.

Step 4: Use state law where it applies

A handful of states have specific mugshot laws, and they differ. In California, Civil Code section 1798.91.1 makes it unlawful for a publisher of booking photos to solicit or accept a fee from the person pictured to remove, correct, or stop publishing the photo, and it gives that person the right to sue. Illinois prohibits charging to remove, correct, or modify criminal record information, including arrest photos. Georgia requires commercial sites to remove a booking photo at no charge within 30 days of a written request sent by certified mail or statutory overnight delivery in eight situations, such as when charges were dismissed, the case was never prosecuted, or the person was acquitted.

Other states have their own rules, and some have none. Your state attorney general's consumer protection office is a good place to check, and it may accept complaints about sites that break these laws. These laws often exempt news outlets, so they're mainly useful for private mugshot sites.

Step 5: Report sites that demand payment to Google

Google has a removal policy for sites with exploitative removal practices. It will consider removing a page from its results if you're the subject of the content, the site isn't a business review site, and the site requires payment, to itself or another party, to remove the content. You submit the exact page addresses and can upload screenshots showing the payment demand. Google says it may also rank sites like these lower when it processes many such removals.

This removes the page from Google results only. It stays on the site and may still appear on other search engines, so it works best together with your request to the site. Google also notes it weighs whether content is of public interest, so not every request is approved.

Step 6: Refresh results and keep checking

When a site removes your photo or changes the page, Google may keep showing the old version until it revisits. Google's Refresh Outdated Content tool lets you submit the address of a page that's been removed or changed so Google can update or drop the old result. Check back in a week or two.

Copies can reappear, especially when sites share data. Set a reminder to rerun your searches monthly for a few months, and keep your documents and list together so a new copy takes minutes to handle, not hours.

What not to do

Don't pay the site that posted your photo. It rewards the practice, may not stop copies elsewhere, and in some states the demand is itself unlawful. Be skeptical of removal services that guarantee results; some have been linked to the sites that post photos, and many just send the same requests described here. If you do hire help, get a written list of exactly which pages they'll work on and what they'll do.

While you wait

Removal takes time and isn't always possible, so make sure there's something accurate to find. A simple personal website on a domain you own, with your current work and a professional photo, plus consistent profiles, gives anyone searching your name a fuller and more current picture. Our guides on improving your name results and on building a personal site walk through it. If you'd rather have more of that work done up front, Recover Launch is a one-time $695 package: a 5-page site on your own domain, 6 articles or profile pages from your approved facts, and a 60-day check-in with a fresh audit. It's more work sooner, not a promise to remove or outrank anything.