How records are built, corrected and removed

What an Offender Record is

An Offender Record documents a person who has been convicted of, or is currently charged with, a violent or sexual offense: homicide, sexual assault, sexual abuse of a child, kidnapping, aggravated assault and closely related offenses. It collects what public records say about that person's charges, where they have lived and worked, their vehicles and their appearance over time.

The purpose is public awareness and, behind the scenes, to let investigators compare a documented history against unsolved cases. A record is not a suggestion that the person is connected to any unsolved case, and Solve the Case never publishes such comparisons.

Who is eligible

Adults only. A person appears here only after an arrest with charges that remain pending before a court, or after a conviction. People described as suspects or persons of interest, people under investigation, and juvenile adjudications are never recorded.

Every record is approved by a Solve the Case Admin or Staff moderator before it is published.

Sourcing

Solve the Case is never the original source of a fact. Every arrest, charge and conviction cites at least one public record: a court docket, a law enforcement release, a registry entry or a news report from an identifiable publisher. Places, vehicles and dates cite the record they came from. We keep an archived copy of each source through the Internet Archive so the basis for a statement can be checked even if the original page changes.

We use the words the records use: convicted of, charged with, pleaded guilty to. A charge is an accusation, not proof of guilt, and a person charged is presumed innocent unless convicted. Locations are recorded at city, county or state level, never as street addresses. Victims of sexual offenses and minors are never named.

Public contributions

Members of the public can share information about where a person lived, worked or traveled, and when. Submissions must point to a source. Nothing is added to a record until a moderator has verified the source and archived it. Statements submitted by the public are stored separately from statements written by Solve the Case staff.

Corrections, dispositions and removal

If a charge is dismissed, the person is acquitted, a conviction is overturned, or a record is pardoned or expunged, tell us. Each charge carries its disposition, and a record with no remaining conviction or pending charge is removed from the public site. Corrections are free. We aim to act within five business days of a request and we never charge a fee for any change.

Requests go through the correction form on every record or the contact page. Include the record number and the source for the change where you can.

Permitted use

Solve the Case is not a consumer reporting agency. Information on this site may not be used to decide a person's eligibility for employment, housing, credit, insurance or any other purpose covered by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. It may never be used to harass, threaten, intimidate or harm anyone. Where a source is a government offender registry, the information is reproduced as of the date shown and remains subject to that registry's conditions of use, which in many states limit its use to protecting a person at risk.