Our Mugshot Removal Policy: Always Free, and Why We Publish in the First Place

Two questions arrive in our inbox more than any others: "Why is my mugshot on your site?" and "How do I get it taken down?" Both deserve straight answers. This article explains why we publish booking records in the first place, exactly how removal works here (it is free, always, with no exceptions), and what you can realistically do about records that live on other websites and in government databases.

Why We Publish Mugshots at All

Booking records, including booking photos, are public records in New Mexico. When someone is arrested and booked into the Doña Ana County Detention Center, that event is documented by the government, and the public has a right to inspect it. Newspapers have printed police-blotter arrest reports for well over a century for the same reason: arrests are an exercise of government power, and the public watching who gets arrested, by which agency, and on what charges is part of how that power stays accountable.

Our booking feed updates several times daily from those public records. Every record we publish carries the same notice, and it bears repeating here: an arrest is not a conviction. Everyone in our records is presumed innocent unless and until a court says otherwise. A booking photo documents that an arrest happened. It says nothing about guilt.

Our Removal Policy, in Full

We remove records for free on request. Here is the whole policy:

• Removal is always free. We do not charge for removal, we do not accept payment for removal, and we never will. If anyone ever asks you for money to remove a record from this site, they do not work for us.
• Expungements, dismissals, and acquittals are always honored. Send us the order or disposition through our contact page and we remove the record.
• Mistaken identity is corrected immediately. If a record shows the wrong person, tell us and we fix it.
• We update records proactively. When court records show a case was dismissed or ended without a conviction, we note that status rather than leaving a bare arrest record standing.

The Pay-for-Removal Industry, and Why We Refuse

There is a corner of the internet that works very differently. Some mugshot sites republish booking photos and then charge the people pictured hundreds of dollars to take them down, sometimes through supposedly independent "reputation" services run by the same operators. Several states have outlawed the practice. We consider it extortion in slow motion: manufacturing distress and then selling the cure. We do not participate in it, we do not partner with removal services, and no payment to anyone will ever affect what appears on this site.

What Removal From This Site Does and Doesn't Do

Honesty requires acknowledging our limits. When we remove a record, it is gone from this site, and after a short delay it will drop out of search engine results that pointed here. But we cannot:

• Remove the underlying record from government systems. The detention center, the courts, and state agencies keep their own records under their own rules.
• Remove copies published by other websites. Each site has its own policy, and you must contact each one separately.
• Erase court records. Case files remain publicly searchable on the New Mexico Courts Case Lookup unless and until a court orders them expunged.

Cleaning Up the Rest of the Internet

If your goal is to clear your name online, removal from one site is step one of several. A realistic sequence looks like this:

1. Start with the strongest paper. If your case was dismissed or you were acquitted, get the court disposition. If you qualify, pursue expungement, which seals the government records themselves. Our guide to expungement in New Mexico explains who qualifies and how the process works.
2. Request removal site by site. Contact each website hosting the record. Reputable sites honor expungements and dismissals; ones that demand payment are the industry described above.
3. Then update Google. After a page is actually removed, Google's "outdated content" tool can flush the dead page and its cached snippet from search results. The tool only works once the page is gone, so removal comes first.

Why Not Just Delete Everything?

Some people ask why we publish arrest records at all if we are willing to remove them. The answer is that both halves of the policy serve the same principle. Publishing keeps arrests, a serious use of government power, visible to the public. Free removal recognizes that a record's public value fades when a case ends in dismissal or acquittal, and that no one should have to pay to escape an accusation that was never proven. A police blotter is journalism. Holding someone's photo hostage is not.

How to Reach Us

Removal requests, corrections, and questions about this policy all go through our contact page. Include the name on the record and the booking date, and attach court paperwork if your request is based on an expungement or disposition. We do not need anything else, and we will never ask you for payment.

Las Cruces Mugshots publishes general information about New Mexico law and local procedure for the public. It is not legal advice. All persons listed in our booking records are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.