localcrimenews.com
LocalCrimeNews.com is a California-focused arrest-news database that is useful for finding reported arrests, but its records should be treated as leads to verify rather than proof that someone committed a crime.
What is LocalCrimeNews.com used for?
The main purpose of the site is to make California arrest information easy for the public to search.
The site says it collects arrest news from across California and publishes new information each day.
Users can search by a person's first name, last name, or city, and only one search field is required.
A typical result can show a person's name, age, city, county, reported date, and the California crime codes connected with the arrest.
The site also has a city list, arrest statistics, a crime-code lookup tool, and a map for viewing recent arrests by location.
How large is the arrest database?
Local Crime News says its arrest counter covers records collected since 2013.
Some city pages contain tens of thousands of matching records, while major areas can contain far more.
The site's current statistics page lists very large accumulated arrest totals for places such as Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego, Fresno, and Sacramento.
These numbers describe arrests collected by the website, so they should not automatically be read as the number of unique people or as a direct measure of how dangerous a city is.
Does an arrest record mean someone is guilty?
No, and this is the most important point when using the website.
Local Crime News itself states that people shown on the site were arrested on suspicion of an offense and are presumed innocent.
An arrest may later lead to charges, a dismissal, an acquittal, a conviction, or another result that is not obvious from the original arrest listing.
For that reason, an old Local Crime News page can give only part of a person's legal history.
California's Department of Justice separates criminal-history information involving arrests and convictions, which is another reason not to treat the two as the same thing.
How accurate is LocalCrimeNews.com?
The site's own terms make clear that users should not expect perfect accuracy.
Local Crime News terms say information is compiled from selected public records and other sources, while also warning that the information may not always be current, complete, or accurate.
The FAQ also says arresting agencies provide different amounts of information and may use different abbreviations, which can cause some displayed details to be missing or inaccurate.
This makes the site good for finding a possible record quickly, but weak as the only source for an important decision.
A court record, official agency record, or authorized criminal-history report can provide stronger confirmation when accuracy matters.
Can Local Crime News be used for background checks?
The site's terms specifically warn users not to assume its search results give a complete or accurate criminal or civil history.
It also tells users to use extreme care when interpreting search results because a positive or false match may not confirm a person's real background.
This issue matters when several people have the same name, live in the same city, or have similar ages.
The safest approach is to match several details and then confirm the information through an official source.
Can someone remove an arrest from LocalCrimeNews.com?
Yes, the website offers a simple unpublishing process.
Its FAQ says a person can open the arrest-detail page, click the red Unpublish Record button, and provide a date of birth for verification.
An email address can also be supplied if the person wants confirmation that the page was removed.
Removing the page from Local Crime News may not remove it from Google immediately because search engines can continue showing cached results for a short period.
California courts also provide separate legal procedures for some people who want to seal an arrest record, especially when an arrest did not lead to a conviction.
What information does the website collect about visitors?
The privacy policy says users may provide information such as a name, email address, mailing address, or phone number when registering, ordering, or completing forms.
The site also uses cookies and Google advertising technologies, including AdSense and advertising-related tracking tools.
Users who create an account can gain more search filters, save searches, and receive notifications when new matching records appear.
Is LocalCrimeNews.com worth using?
LocalCrimeNews.com is most useful as a fast discovery tool for California arrest information because it turns scattered arrest data into searchable pages organized around names, cities, dates, and crime codes.
Its biggest weakness is also simple: an arrest page can look final even though an arrest is only one step in a legal process.
Use the site to find a possible record, read the arrest details carefully, remember the presumption of innocence, and verify important facts with courts or government agencies before drawing conclusions about any person.