If learning how to find your mugshot is on your mind right now, you came to the right place. Here are 4 fast ways to find your past and current mugshots.
Having mugshots online is no fun. No matter how minor your reason for being arrested might have been, or whether your charges have been already dropped, a picture of you in jail is an embarrassing ordeal that can negatively impact both your personal and professional life.
And since most job recruiters, potential love interests, and even members of your social circle might be searching for information about you right now, getting rid of arrest records will give you the best chance to conduct your life without the past dragging you down.
If you‘ve ever been arrested and are now wondering how to find your mugshot, keep on reading. We’ll show you how to find your mugshot online and remove it before it creates a lasting impact on your life.
So let’s dig in!
Where To Look For Mugshots?
Mugshots and arrest records can be found on many easily located sources on the Internet and often appear online within hours after an arrest.
Surprisingly or not, there’s a whole industry built around a wide range of websites that thrive by finding new mugshots and arrest records and posting them to their platforms.
Some of these “businesses” are reputable and will remove your records if you can prove that the crime was expunged. Others will ask you to pay a fee to have your mugshot removed even if you are eventually found innocent of your charges.
With most people agreeing to pay the requested fee, these sites grow stronger year after year. After all, who wants to be known as a criminal?
1. Mugshot Websites
If you don’t know how to find your mugshot or are unsure where to start your search, mugshot websites should be your first go-to place.
As shown above, mugshot websites are platforms that collect booking photos and arrest records information to create a directory that people can search.
Chances are that if you’re a US citizen and you’ve been recently arrested, your information will be on one of these sites. If you are really unlucky, you might even find out that your picture is live on many more mugshot websites.
Below are some of the most well-known mugshot websites. Many of them have become highly controversial in recent years. Take them one by one to determine if your mugshot is posted there:
- BustedMugshots.com
- PublicPoliceRecords.com
- Arrested.com
- CriminalFaces.com
- ArrestFiles.org
- Mugshots.com
2. How To Find Your Mugshot With Google Search
Wondering how to find your mugshot without having to browse countless mugshot websites? It’s simple, really! You just need to do a simple Google search. Enter your name and surname. And then, see if the results display your mugshot as well as links to the websites that have published the information.
Mugshot websites have a lot of exposure and will often appear amongst Google’s first results. This means that whenever someone searches for your name online, even on a basic Google search, they may run across those photos and records.
3. The Local Police Department
Mugshots and other arrest records are often accessible to the public and press at the local police department where the arrest took place in the first place.
In the past, prior to the Internet, records were kept as paper copies, and one had to physically go to the agency to get the record. Today, if you wonder how to find your mugshot, you should know that many police departments are also running their own websites, providing image and identification information — as well as recent arrests.
But there’s also the scenario where your mugshot is nowhere to be found. Have you been arrested and cannot find your mugshot online? Talking with your local police department might give you the answers you are looking for.
If you want to avoid talking with the police, here are some of the most common reasons your mugshot might not be online:
- Your charges were expunged
- Depending on where you live, some police jurisdictions no longer release mugshots without a valid request
- Your charges have been dropped
- Your arrest was a mistake
- Your arrest happened a long time ago, and your mugshot has been erased
4. How To Find Your Mugshot Online With The Help Of A Professional Company
Since every situation is different, and each website has its own particularities, when it comes to finding and removing a mugshot, you can simplify your life by working with a mugshot removal company.
At Erase Mugshots, we know best how to perform a comprehensive mugshot search, pinpointing all the locations where your mugshot appears. We then go through all the appropriate channels to ensure that your mugshot is removed from both the websites where it has been published and the search engines that have indexed it.
Our team will notify all unscrupulous mugshot companies to take down this information legally and notify all search engines quickly and effectively.
When wondering how to find your mugshot online so that you can move on with your life faster, working with a removal company is certainly an excellent option to consider. Ultimately, there’s no better way to guarantee that your mugshot is not only found but that it also disappears completely from all online records.
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