How to Find Recent Arrests and Protect Your Online Reputation

January 2, 2025

This article offers advice on finding recent arrests, locating records online, and managing one’s digital reputation.

Often, arrest records are public records, and you can search for them using Google or databases from local law enforcement agencies. When a person’s name is on arrest information or criminal history records, it can cause damage to their online reputation, regardless of what actually ended up happening with the case.

Knowing how to find public arrest records online is an important part of managing your online reputation and how such records influence other people’s perceptions of you or your business. Additionally, locating your arrest information can help you do the following:

• Correct inaccurate information
• Petition for the removal of the arrest records
• Request sealing of the arrest records

Overall, accessing your arrest reports gives you options for cleaning up your online image, like requesting sealed records. In this article, we’ll discuss how to proactively manage your public arrest records and other personal records online so that you don’t miss out on opportunities in your personal or professional life.

Our mugshot removal services will remove your online arrest records and mugshot images fast. Contact us today at 866-601-6803 to learn more.

Arrest Records: Public Access

When a law enforcement agency detains a person, an official document called an arrest record is created. Arrest records include details about the offense and circumstances.

Arrest records are not the same as convictions. A conviction means that the individual was formally found guilty in court.

In contrast, arrest records simply mean that the person was taken into custody by law enforcement agencies. Whether or not the person was guilty isn’t necessarily reflected in the arrest information.

Are Arrest Records Public Records?

The public may receive unlimited search access to your arrest and criminal records online.

Why? In many jurisdictions, arrest records are considered part of publicly available information. This means that your arrest records are public documents. Clients, employers or anyone else from the general public can access them.

Public arrest records are typically maintained by court systems, law enforcement agencies or other government agencies. They’re commonly available through background check services, online databases from law enforcement agencies or government agencies, or requests for public records.

Because arrest information and criminal history data are so easily accessible, the information that can be found can influence public perception — even if the person was released without being charged. While providing arrest information to the public can force the individual who was arrested to be accountable for their actions, it can also lead to missed opportunities and reputational harm.

If your goal is to protect your online privacy and manage your reputation on the internet, it’s important to know what arrest information is public and how those arrest reports are used.

Public Arrest Records

• Police Reports: Police reports from most law enforcement agencies include details about the incident that led to the arrest. This includes the arrest date plus the arrest location and time, along with the circumstances of the arrest. Sometimes, police reports also include information about evidence, along with statements from witnesses.
• Booking Records: After a person is arrested, they’re booked at a nearby police department or their local law enforcement agency. Booking records from the arresting agency often include the individual’s personal information, like their full name, date of birth and physical description. The records will also have a booking ID, a list of charges, and the individual’s mugshots.
• Court Records: Previous arrests that lead to court cases or appearances will produce court records. These documents will include details about arraignment, bail and court dates. Basically, court records serve as a timeline of events following the arrest and booking process.

Information Included in Arrest Records

• Arrest Details: All the details of the arrest, including arrest date, location and time, plus the nature of the arrest and specific charges
• Booking Information: Booking date and release date, bail amount, fingerprints and mugshot
• Case Information: Case number, status of the charges, and information about court proceedings
• Personal Information: Full name and aliases, date of birth and home address
• Law Enforcement Information: Name of the arresting police department and full names of the officers involved

Arrest Information and Reputation

There are a number of ways that public arrest records can negatively impact an individual’s personal or brand reputation:

• Lost Opportunities: When a person’s reputation is damaged by online arrest records, they can miss out on opportunities, like getting a job or moving into a new home.
• Personal Relationships: Friends, family and acquaintances may feel that they have to distance themselves from a person with arrests. They also may judge the individual without learning details about the situation.
• Professional Consequences: Clients, employers and partners may feel that the person is not reliable or trustworthy if they have arrests.
• Search Engine Results: When arrests appear in search engine results, users can be left with a negative impression of the individual or the company they represent. This is true even if the individual was let go without being charged.
• Spread of Misinformation: Since arrest records don’t tell the full story, they can lead to the spread of misinformation online.

Having your arrest reports online can make it hard to build up your credibility and restore people’s trust in you.

Our mugshot removal experts will analyze search engine results to find public arrest records and remove your personal information and mugshots online. Call us at 866-601-6803 for more information about deleting your public arrest record from online sources.

Find Arrest Records

There are a number of ways to find your criminal records and arrest records online so you can take steps to safeguard your digital reputation.

Police Department

Government-run websites, like county and city databases, those from local police departments, or the one for your specific arresting agency, typically have a database with arrest data and criminal records that you can search. The amount of information available will depend on local laws, as different areas have varying laws about what is and is not made public.

Public Records

There are tons of official websites, people search websites and mugshot sites that aggregate all sorts of personal information, including arrest records, inmate records, property records (including tax property liens), marriage records and more. Sometimes, a Google search will bring up an individual’s profile on these sites. Other times, you’ll need to go directly to the people search site and look for the individual’s name using the search tool to access their profile.

Search

Google and other search engines often index arrest records online, making it easy to find them with a simple search of the individual’s name. You may not even have to add “arrest record” or something similar to the search, though it can help to narrow down the results.

Third-Party Services

If you feel certain that your arrest records are available online but you’re having trouble locating them, working with a third-party service can help. Online reputation management agencies and legal firms may have additional ways to do deeper online searches for your arrest data.

Online Arrest Records: Next Steps

Once you’ve located your arrest records online, there are a number of steps you can take to protect and improve your online reputation.

1. Verification

First, make sure that the information included in the arrest records is accurate. Check the date of the arrest, information about the arresting agency, and details of the charges. If you find any inaccuracies, contact the arresting agency and ask that they fix them.

While your main goal is to remove your arrest records from public access, it’s smart to correct misinformation for the time being until you take additional steps.

2. Formal Requests

If you have a valid reason for wanting your arrest records sealed or expunged — and if you meet the qualifications to be considered for either option — take steps to submit the request. The more information you can provide to present your case, the better.

3. Removals

Since you’ve already determined which data brokers, people search websites and official websites have your public arrest records, contact them to ask that they remove your data. Some websites will have an opt-out process to follow, while others require you to contact the website owner directly.

If you were able to seal or expunge an arrest record, provide proof of this to the website owner. This will make it more likely that they’ll comply with your request.

4. Content Creation

It can take a long time for websites to remove your information. Whether or not you’re able to have your arrest records removed from public information, it’s possible it’ll still show up in search results for a while.

You can suppress negative content from appearing in online search results by regularly creating positive and neutral content. As the new content ranks in search engine results, the older content will be pushed down far enough to rarely be seen by users.

5. Professional Help

If your life has been seriously affected by felony arrest records and you’re struggling to rebuild your online reputation, it may be best to hire an ORM company. ORM experts can help you find arrest records online and negotiate with data brokers to remove your information. They can also help with content creation and suppressing negative search results.

We work on behalf of our clients to erase mugshots, arrest records, police reports and other sensitive information from the internet. Give us a call at 866-601-6803 to learn more.

Protecting Your Online Reputation

Once you’ve found the information you were looking for online and you’ve taken steps to manage your online presence, it’s important to continually pay attention to any information that shows up about you online.

There are all sorts of county and city databases and non-official websites that will gather and maintain records, then post private and sensitive information about people, including:

• Asset records
• Bond information
• Charges filed
• Criminal court details
• Inmate records
• Divorce records
• Driving violations
• Marriage records
• Outstanding warrants
• Property records
• Social Security numbers
• Tax property liens

While accessing this and other information is often considered necessary for public safety, some people try to find information for nefarious purposes. For example, submitting a records request for criminal court data may be in the best interest of the public. But finding out someone’s Social Security number, business ownership details or related information can be used for cybercriminal activity.

To stay safe online, use monitoring tools so you’re alerted as soon as information about you shows up in search results. Avoid sharing personal information that could put you in harm’s way or damage your reputation. And continue to contribute positive content to your website, social media accounts and professional platforms to remain trustworthy in the public eye.

8 Easy Tips

1. Set up Google Alerts or regularly search for your name on Google to see the latest results.
2. Claim your name on social media platforms, even if you don’t plan to use those accounts. That way, nobody else can set up an account under your name.
3. Before you post on social media, your website or another online platform, ensure you’re not about to share anything overly personal, controversial or offensive.
4. Regularly prune your online accounts to remove anything outdated or that could harm your reputation.
5. Keep your online profiles up-to-date for accuracy and to highlight achievements.
6. If you’re a business owner, make sure to respond to negative comments. Do so professionally and thoughtfully.
7. Always use strong passwords and two-factor authentication (2FA).
8. Review and update the privacy settings on all your online accounts. The goal is to stay as safe as possible and avoid sharing personal information that could reveal too much about you.

Recent Arrests and ORM

Unfortunately, once you’ve been arrested, the public has a lot of access to your sensitive information, including your mugshots, charges and even home address. Having your private information so accessible can lead to everything from privacy and safety issues to lost opportunities as others make snap judgments about you.

Locating arrest records online and taking steps to update, remove or suppress a person’s record is a huge step toward protecting your online reputation. Managing your adult arrest record can feel like a full-time job, though — one that you don’t have the time or expertise for.

At EraseMugshots.com, we offer removal services to get rid of damaging information, like your arrest record, and help you rebuild your online reputation. Whether you have arrest records, mugshots or police reports online, we’ll work on your behalf to remove them from search results.

It doesn’t matter if your charges were expunged, dismissed or dropped, or even if you were found guilty, either. Our strategies will remove or suppress negative content, including arrest records, from showing up on mugshot websites and in Google search results.

Do you need help removing your arrest records and mugshots from search results? Get a free mugshot removal analysis today and sign up for a consultation with one of our experts. Learn more here.

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