Are you listed on a commercial “mugshot” site? If so – there is a way to get off in Florida.

The parent company of Mugshots.com, a website that pulls arrest photos from local police departments, publishes them on the internet and then attempts to charge a fee to have the images removed, was sued in a Broward County court, after extorting the man for money in order to remove the image.

This is just one of a long line of cases in which the company has been sued. More bad news for the owners; they’ve been charged with extortion in California and two are already in custody.

In the past few years, a new business has emerged; online companies who post embarrassing information, such as arrests, and then charges victims a fee to remove them.

In 2018, the Florida legislature enacted a new law that says:

   34         (2) A person whose arrest booking photograph is published
   35  or otherwise disseminated, or his or her legal representative,
   36  may make a request, in writing, for the removal of an arrest
   37  booking photograph to the registered agent of the person or
   38  entity who published or otherwise disseminated the photograph.
   39  The written request for removal of the arrest booking photograph
   40  must be sent by registered mail and include sufficient proof of
   41  identification of the person whose arrest booking photograph was
   42  published or otherwise disseminated and specific information
   43  identifying the arrest booking photograph that the written
   44  request is seeking to remove. Within 10 days of receipt of the
   45  written request for removal of the arrest booking photograph,
   46  the person or entity who published or otherwise disseminated the
   47  photograph shall remove the arrest booking photograph without
   48  charge.

This law goes into effect.on July 1, 2018.

That means, beginning this July – you can write to the website owner and demand that your information be removed from their site.

We are still determining whether the law will impact sites such as http://www.bustedoffenders.com/, https://www.homefacts.com/offenders.html, whose business model is not to charge for removal, but to charge for a background check service or notifications.

 


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253 thoughts on “Are you listed on a commercial “mugshot” site? If so – there is a way to get off in Florida.

  • February 23, 2019

    I have asked the owner at rapsheets.org to remove my mugshot off the internet several times. I have provided him all the information he requests. In response his company emailed me in writing to solicit a fee. These charges against me were actually dropped due to identity theft. I would appreciate help in this matter.

    Since my mugshot is on google, the webhost is claiming the domain has nothing to do with them.

    Reply
    • May 3, 2019

      did you ever get this resolved? I’m in the same boat.

      Reply
      • June 1, 2019

        same here

        Reply
    • August 30, 2019

      The web host can’t have it removed from google images but if removed from the mugshot website, google will, in the near future, update the images from that site and your mugshot will be removed from the google Cache as well. If you don’t want a wait there is a “report outdated image” function that ideally would cause them to deal with it faster.

      Reply
    • October 27, 2019

      Post that email, can’t you? That would be evidence of extortion.

      Reply
  • February 8, 2019

    If you are having problems with responses or actions from the specific websites, it might be worth trying to contact the websites service providers.

    If you choose to contact those websites service provider, please be nice, service providers are not responsible for the content of the websites but a service provider can chose not to do business with them.

    You need to include the website when reporting, explain your reasons for complaint, do not vent on this communications, if you have legal documents you should notify the service provider, do not send documents if you are communicating via email unless you are asked to, if you are submitting a request for multiple websites to the same provider then you should create a report for each website you are reporting.

    Contacting the service providers does not mean the content will be removed, but it doesn’t hurt to try.

    ** replace the (a) with the proper @ symbol on the email addresses **

    Here is what I was able to find

    Website: mugshots.com
    Service Provider: Amazon Web Services
    ISP Contact: abuse(a)amazonaws.com

    Website: homefacts.com
    Service Provider: Microsoft Azure
    ISP Contact: https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-us/engage/cars

    Website: bustedoffenders.com
    Service Provider: Cloudfare
    ISP Contact: https://www.cloudflare.com/abuse/form

    Website: rapsheets.org
    Service Provider: Cloudfare
    ISP Contact: https://www.cloudflare.com/abuse/form

    Website: arrest.org
    Service Provider: Liquid Web
    ISP Contact: abuse(a)liquidweb.com

    If you want me to look up any other service providers, reply with the URL and I will try to append additional information, the information above is public records.

    Reply
  • December 5, 2018

    I’ll see how this goes because I have legal counsel, I’m suing as soon as possible, if anything I can make money off of THEM!

    Reply
    • December 17, 2018

      Please let me know how this goes, I’m in the same boat and I’m ready to take legal action as well. They took my photo and are spreading false info. I was arrested based off of accusation which was later dropped because the person that pressed charges didn’t even show up to court because she knew I had evidence proving my innocence. Yet I still gotta deal with this.

      Reply
    • December 28, 2018

      We need to involve our local congressman and senators they created the law and now that our voting rights have been restored we are as strong as any lobbiest organization. I say we develop a form letter of demand to the.legislature to fight that liar. He is selling us to those sleazy removal people . Turns out those sites are oigated to disclose their affiliations

      Reply
      • January 3, 2019

        I completely agree bc I have tried to message them on their website, but my message doesn’t get sent successfully.
        Today I have tried to call them several times, but it rings once and goes straight to voicemail. And the message says “I’m sorry, but the person you are trying to reach has a voicemail that is not set up yet”.

        Reply
    • January 3, 2019

      -Can you please let me know when you sue or when you’re about to sue bc they put an arrest on their website about me where I was wrongfully arrested. The charges were dropped in court and I had this expunged from my record completely.
      -I have tried to message them on their website, but my message doesn’t get sent successfully.
      -Today I have tried to call them several times, but it rings once and goes straight to voicemail. And the message says “I’m sorry, but the person you are trying to reach has a voicemail that is not set up yet.”

      Reply
    • January 11, 2019

      This is good because I paid a lot of money for my son’s record to be expunged, it was his first and only offense and now I see his mugshot with the charges that were brought up against him on this site. Hummmmm.

      Reply
    • February 2, 2019

      Any luck after expungement? I have submitted and completed their online forms provided sealed document and have not received a response.

      Reply
  • December 5, 2018

    It would actually be easier to get a name change than to deal with rapsheets.org, they will keep the info up even if it’s outdated and not accurate. Whatever they think they’re running it will be shut down eventually.

    Reply
    • January 4, 2019

      They informed me in response to my request to remove my information, that they are exempt from the law. They are a media outlet. Doesn’t matter if it is outdated. The circumstances surrounding it doesn’t matter to them either.

      Reply
    • October 27, 2019

      Headline “Woman changes her own name because of internet troll”

      Reply
  • November 30, 2018

    I think somebody needs to create an organization to fight with this guy. I sent a registered mail which is not claimed and will be returned back to me in 10 days if its not claimed. I’m keeping every step recorded and documented. I’m planning to get a lawyer by 9th of december 2018 and sue him pursuant to FL statuary code as its displayed in his website. if there is anyone would like to pitch in lets get our force together. reply to this mail with your email address I’ll contact you. (make your email address as spelled so it wont picked up by bots)

    Reply
    • December 8, 2018

      Trying to get cleared by the Florida law,is a total waste of time. The options are either to change tour name or get an internet reputation firm to deal with it.

      Reply
      • January 4, 2019

        Internet reputation firms try to bury those search results. Rapsheets somehow can keep their information at the top of Google search, through the extra links to click on in their webpages I’d magine. Good luck

        Reply
        • March 16, 2021

          They’re doing it by adding “Does [insert your name] have a Facebook? Does [insert your name] have a LinkedIn?”

          Reply
    • June 9, 2019

      Marty please email me at malesa1842 at Comcast dot net
      I’m interested in exploring this lawsuit with you. I’m in the same boat.

      Reply
  • October 2, 2018

    Has anyone had luck having a mugshot removed from rap sheets.org with or without a lawyer? I sent them a registered letter last year and nothing happened. Yesterday, I went to their website and filled out the form for removal and included my paperwork and Drivers License. They wrote me back, saying, I couldn’t read, the law didn’t apply to them bc they don’t charge a fee to take the mugshots down. Told me to contact my attorney.

    Reply
    • November 11, 2018

      RAPSHEETS. These scum bags did the same to me. After I and my Attorney requested my records to be removed in writing via certified mail as well as by email, they finally responded after 6 months that they are exempt from a New FL Law because they do not charge a fee. I don’t believe they don’t as they did charge it prior July 1, 2018. But do anyone know if the new law really has such exemption? And do Rapsheets qualify for such Exemption? I don’t understand if they do not charge a fee what benefit they have of keeping arrest records and not at least remove them when someone requests? They get requests and just answer they’re exempt. That doesn’t make any sense. If they want to keep those records they must be profiting from it. I’m sick and tired to be humiliated by RAPSHEETS of continuing keeping my records when my case was dismissed. So Unfair. Can someone share what to do, how to make them remove my record?

      Reply
    • November 13, 2018

      Yeah the law is totally ineffective. As several people have pointed out, as long as the website doesn’t collect a fee for removal, they can post the mugshot photo. To still make money, the website will happily point you in the direction of website removal companies (which are probably related to the mugshot companies).

      The only way to end this practice is to outright ban these websites, but that won’t ever happen since arrest records are public information.

      Reply
      • November 19, 2018

        It’s honestly not very difficult to make websites that exist largely for the purpose of publishing mugshots illegal.

        These websites exist because of the “freedom of the press” argument, but are these websites really legitimate news agencies? I think not.

        IMO, I think it will eventually get the point of “mugshot websites” becoming illegal entirely because of the public need for redemption.

        Who wants to bet on the first state passing such a law? It’s inching closer.

        Reply
    • September 8, 2019

      They are stupid don’t even understand the law. Send your request in writting to remove mugshot via certified mail within 10 days of receipt they by law need to adhere to your request, & remove the mugshot.

      Reply

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