To get your mugshot removed from the internet, work in three layers: ask Google and Bing to drop the pages from search results, send removal or opt-out requests to every website hosting the image, and, if you’re eligible, petition the court to expunge or seal the underlying record so those requests carry legal weight. No single step wipes every copy, but working through them in that order usually clears most of what an employer or landlord would find within a few months. The search engine layer comes first because that’s how people find the photo in the first place.
Start With Google and Bing
Even when a mugshot stays live on some obscure site, most of the damage comes from it appearing when someone types your name into a search bar. De-indexing removes the page from search results without touching the page itself.
Google runs a dedicated removal process aimed at sites that charge fees to take mugshots down. If the site hosting your photo demands payment for removal, submit a request through Google’s support page. Google will consider dropping the link from search results when three conditions are met: you are the person in the content, the site is not a business review platform, and the site requires payment for removal.1Google Search Help. Remove Content About You on Exploitative Sites That Try to Charge for Removal You’ll supply the specific URLs and a short explanation of how the site is exploitative.
Google has a separate tool for pages that expose personal information in a way that could cause harm, including doxxing content that pairs your details with threats or calls for harassment.2Google Search Help. Remove My Private Info From Google Search It covers phone numbers, home addresses, government IDs, and images of your signature as well.
If the hosting site has already pulled the page but it still shows up in search results, use Google’s Remove Outdated Content tool to force a re-crawl. Bing offers a similar form through its webmaster tools. Neither engine will remove content that still exists at the source, so pair these requests with direct outreach to the site.
Send Removal Requests to the Hosting Sites
Mugshots typically live on two kinds of sites, and each has its own path to removal.
Dedicated Mugshot Sites
Most of these sites have a removal or opt-out page somewhere, though some bury it. Look at the footer for links labeled “removal,” “opt out,” or “do not sell my personal information.” Some sites honor a plain removal request. Others want documentation showing the case was dismissed, charges were dropped, or the record was expunged. A few flatly demand payment.
Roughly 18 states have laws targeting mugshot websites by banning removal fees, restricting the flow of booking photos from law enforcement, or requiring published information to be accurate. Most make noncompliance a misdemeanor. If a site is charging you and your state prohibits the practice, say so in writing. Keep every email, payment demand, and screenshot. That paper trail supports any later legal claim.
People-Search and Data Broker Sites
Background-data aggregators often republish mugshots alongside your name, address, relatives, and phone numbers. Each site has its own opt-out: find your listing, submit the request, and confirm your identity by email. Use a disposable email address, because some sites will attach it to your profile.
The frustrating part is that opting out of one broker does nothing about the others, and there are dozens. Automated data-removal services submit opt-outs across many brokers for a monthly or annual fee. Whether that’s worth it depends on how many sites carry your information and how much time you’re willing to spend doing it yourself.
Petition for Expungement or Record Sealing
Expungement or sealing gives you the strongest legal leverage, because the public record that mugshot sites rely on for justification either disappears or becomes restricted. Expungement directs government offices to destroy the case records. Sealing hides them from public view while keeping them accessible to certain agencies with a court order. For mugshot removal, either one works.
Eligibility depends on your jurisdiction and the facts of your case. Common factors: the type of offense, time elapsed since the arrest or conviction, whether you’ve picked up any charges since, and whether you completed every term of your sentence. Many jurisdictions limit expungement to misdemeanors or nonviolent offenses and carve out categories like domestic violence and certain traffic crimes. Some states have Clean Slate laws that automatically seal qualifying records after a waiting period, so check whether yours has already been cleared.
The process starts with a petition in the court that handled your original case. A judge has discretion over whether to grant it. Missed deadlines, wrong forms, or incomplete petitions frequently lead to denials, which is why an experienced expungement attorney is often worth the cost. Filing fees range from nothing to a few hundred dollars.
One limit to understand up front: expungement orders bind government agencies, not private websites or newspapers that copied your booking photo before the record was cleared. You’ll still have to send removal requests to those sites. What changes is that the court order makes those requests far more effective.
Push Background Check Databases to Drop the Record
An expungement does not automatically clear every commercial background-check database. Consumer reporting agencies must follow reasonable procedures to ensure maximum possible accuracy under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has stated that once a record has been expunged, sealed, or otherwise legally restricted from public access, it is misleading and inaccurate to include it in a consumer report.3Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Fair Credit Reporting – Background Screening Advisory Opinion
In practice, screening companies are expected to cross-check existing data against updated sources and drop records that have been cleared. If a company reports your expunged record anyway, dispute it directly. If it fails to correct the entry, you may have grounds for an FCRA suit. This is one area where the law has real teeth, and enforcement actions against screening companies that report expunged records are not uncommon.3Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Fair Credit Reporting – Background Screening Advisory Opinion
Use State Privacy Laws to Force Deletion
Around 20 states now have comprehensive consumer privacy laws that include a right to request deletion of your personal information from businesses. Covered businesses generally have to respond within a set window, and intentional violations carry per-violation penalties that can reach several thousand dollars. The specific rights, exemptions, and enforcement mechanisms vary by state.
If your state has one of these laws, send a formal deletion request to any mugshot or people-search site that qualifies as a covered business. The site must respond, usually within 30 to 45 days, either complying or explaining which exemption applies. Businesses that ignore valid requests rack up penalties fast.
Fix Errors and Outdated Case Information
If the mugshot is tied to you incorrectly, or the case has long since resolved in your favor, you have stronger grounds than a general privacy argument.
Misidentification
Sometimes a mugshot is attributed to the wrong person because of a clerical error, a shared name, or straight mistaken identity. Pull together documentation proving you are not the person arrested: a government-issued ID, an affidavit, or correspondence from the arresting agency confirming the error. Send it to the hosting site with a removal request. If the site refuses, defamation or invasion of privacy claims may be available depending on the circumstances.
Errors in the Official Record
Occasionally the problem starts upstream. A wrong name or wrong charges in the booking record cascade into inaccurate postings. Fix the source first by contacting the law enforcement agency or court that generated the record, then use the amended documentation to request removal from the sites that copied the earlier version.
Dismissed or Acquitted Cases
A mugshot from a case that ended in dismissal or acquittal can linger indefinitely. Get proof of the outcome, such as a dismissal order or certificate of disposition. Sites are often more willing to remove a mugshot when you can show no conviction followed, and some state laws specifically require removal when you provide proof of case resolution.
Copyright Takedowns Almost Never Work
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s notice-and-takedown system lets copyright owners demand removal of infringing content.4U.S. Copyright Office. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act It looks useful for mugshot removal until you realize you don’t own the copyright to your mugshot.
Copyright belongs to the photographer, not the subject. A mugshot is taken by a law enforcement employee on the job, making it a work made for hire that belongs to the agency. Federal mugshots (FBI, U.S. Marshals) are automatically in the public domain because all federal-agency works are. State and local mugshots are typically owned by the arresting agency, and many states also release them into the public domain, though practices vary.
Filing a DMCA takedown for your own mugshot would be legally questionable and could expose you to liability for a false claim. Skip this route and put your energy into the others.
Be Careful With Paid Removal Services
Search “mugshot removal” and you’ll find dozens of companies promising to scrub your image for a fee. Some are legitimate. Others are outright scams, and a few are reportedly connected to the mugshot sites they claim to fight.
Before paying, understand what you’re buying. There are two very different approaches. Direct removal means the company sends takedown and opt-out requests on your behalf. That’s the same work you could do yourself, but it saves time. Search suppression means the company creates new web content designed to rank above the mugshot. Suppression doesn’t remove the image, it buries it, and if the SEO work stops the mugshot can resurface.
Red flags: guarantees of removal (no one can guarantee a third-party site will comply), refusal to explain methods, and prices wildly out of proportion to the work. Some states have consumer protection laws specifically targeting deceptive practices in mugshot removal, so if a service misled you, the state attorney general’s office may be able to help.
What This Usually Costs
The total depends on how many sites carry your image and whether you qualify for expungement. The individual pieces:
- Search engine de-indexing through Google and Bing: free.
- Direct removal requests to websites: free where the site doesn’t charge and your state prohibits removal fees; anywhere from $50 to several hundred dollars per removal on sites in states without such laws.
- Expungement court filing fees: typically nothing to a few hundred dollars, depending on jurisdiction and offense.
- Attorney fees for expungement: flat fees commonly $400 to $4,000, with most simple misdemeanor cases in the $900 to $1,500 range. Hourly billing tends to run $150 to $400.
- Automated data broker opt-out services: usually $10 to $25 per month or $100 to $250 per year.
- Reputation management companies: $1,000 to $10,000 or more depending on scope, with ongoing SEO suppression adding monthly costs.
Start with the free options, particularly Google’s exploitative-site removal tool and direct opt-outs. If that doesn’t solve it, an expungement attorney is usually the next best spend, because a court order unlocks removal rights that no amount of polite emailing can replicate.