How to Look Up Mugshots by State

A mugshot is the photo taken when a person is booked into a jail after an arrest. It is part of the booking record, together with the name, the charges and the booking date. The record belongs to the agency that made it, usually the county sheriff. No public national database of mugshots exists, and the federal government generally does not release the booking photos it takes.

State public records laws decide whether a booking photo is open to the public. In practice states fall into three groups.

A state can be in more than one group. The page of each state in the Source Directory names the statute we have on file and what it says.

1. 1

   Find the county where the arrest happened. Booking photos are kept by county, not by state.

2. 2

   Open the jail roster, inmate search or arrest inquiry of the county sheriff.

3. 3

   Search the last name. Add the first name or the booking date to narrow the list.

4. 4

   Open the entry. If the county publishes photos, the booking photo is on the entry.

5. 5

   If the person is no longer in custody, look for a separate arrest search or booking log, which covers past bookings.

If you do not know the county, start with a name and a state in the mugshot picture lookup and review the official sources for the jurisdiction.

These guides list the official corrections search, the court portal and the county sources for each state, with the booking photo law.

• Florida mugshots
• Texas mugshots
• Arizona mugshots
• North Carolina mugshots
• Georgia arrest records
• California arrest records
• Ohio arrest records
• Tennessee arrest records

State departments of corrections publish an offender search for people sentenced to prison, and most include a photo taken at intake. That photo is not the booking photo from the arrest, and it exists only for people who were convicted and sentenced to state custody. If you are looking for someone arrested last week, the county jail is the place. If you are looking for someone sentenced years ago, the state search is. See inmate search.

• The state restricts the release of booking photos.
• The county publishes a roster without photos.
• The person was cited and released without being booked.
• The person was under 18.
• The record was sealed or expunged.
• The roster shows only current inmates and the person was released.

For years, private websites copied booking photos from sheriff sites and then charged people to take them down. A number of states have since passed laws against that practice. Some ban the removal fee, some set a deadline for removal on request, and some stop agencies from giving photos to sites that charge. If a site asks you to pay to remove your photo, check the law of your state before you pay anything, and consider reporting the site to your state attorney general.

MugshotLookup never charges for removal. Opt-out, removal and correction are free on the opt-out page, and reports carry no photos for states that restrict commercial display.

A booking photo proves that a person was booked on a certain date. It proves nothing about guilt. An arrest is not a conviction. Charges may have been dropped, dismissed or resulted in acquittal. Look up the court case before you form a view, and be careful about sharing a booking photo. Posting one to shame a person can do real harm to someone who was never convicted.

MugshotLookup searches arrest, booking and court records by name and state and shows the source and date of every record. Booking photos appear only where state law allows commercial display and the source provides them.

MugshotLookup is not a consumer reporting agency as defined by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). You may not use this site or any information from it to make decisions about employment, tenant screening, consumer credit, insurance or any other purpose covered by the FCRA.