Terms of Use

The short version. We publish public records, crime news and public-safety information from official sources. An arrest is an accusation, not a conviction, and everyone is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law. This site is not a background check. Use it lawfully, don't use it to harass anyone, and if a record about you needs attention, send us a request.

1. Who we are and agreeing to these terms

GotBusted News (‘GotBusted News,’ ‘we,’ ‘us,’ or ‘our’) operates gotbustednews.com, our applications, and related services (collectively, the ‘Service’). These Terms govern your access to and use of the Service.

By using the Service you agree to these terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service. You must be at least 18 years old, or the age of majority where you live, to create an account, buy anything, or post content.

2. What the Service is

We republish information that government agencies have already made public, such as jail booking rosters, court calendars, public-safety alerts and sex-offender registries, along with crime news and community features. Records are shown as the source agency published them. A booking means a person was taken into custody; it does not mean they committed a crime. A court hearing is a schedule, not a finding. Charges may be reduced, dismissed or never filed.

3. What the Service is not

GotBusted News is a news and information publication. We are not a consumer reporting agency, and nothing on the Service is a consumer report as defined by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). You may not use the Service, or any information from it, to make decisions about a person's eligibility for employment, housing, credit, insurance, a license, or any other purpose covered by the FCRA or similar state laws. Nothing on the Service is legal advice, and nothing here creates an attorney-client relationship.

4. Accuracy

We work to publish records accurately and to correct errors quickly, but we depend on the agencies that publish the original records and we cannot independently verify every detail. Names, charges, dates and photographs may be incomplete, out of date or wrong at the source. Always confirm information with the official source before relying on it. Different people can share the same name; never assume a record belongs to someone you know based on a name alone.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

harass, threaten, stalk, intimidate, dox, extort or shame any person, including anyone named in a record;
use the Service for any purpose prohibited by the FCRA or similar laws (see section 3);
scrape, crawl, bulk-download or systematically copy records, or use bots or automated tools against the Service, except search-engine indexing that follows our robots.txt;
resell, republish or redistribute our records or databases as your own product;
interfere with the Service's security, try to access accounts, data or admin areas you are not authorized to use, or probe for vulnerabilities;
impersonate anyone or submit false information, including in a removal or correction request;
use the Service for anything unlawful.

You may read, search and share links to individual records and articles for personal, non-commercial purposes.

6. Accounts

You are responsible for keeping your login details secure and for activity on your account. Give us accurate information and keep it up to date. We may suspend or close accounts that break these terms or put other people or the Service at risk.

7. Memberships and paid services

Some features, such as GBN+ membership, digital issues, classified ads, advertising and research services, may cost money. The price, billing period, any trial and what is included are shown before you buy, and those details form part of these terms. Payments are handled by our third-party payment processor; we do not store full card numbers. Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period until you cancel. You can cancel at any time, and cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. Public records are never placed behind a paywall. Except where the law requires otherwise, payments are non-refundable. We may change prices going forward; we will tell existing subscribers before a change affects them.

8. Content you submit

The Service lets you post comments, community posts, tips, stories, photos, classified ads, directory or attorney listings and other material (“your content”). You keep ownership of your content, but you give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, display, edit for length or clarity, and distribute it in connection with the Service. You confirm that you have the right to submit it and that it is accurate and lawful.

Do not post anything that is defamatory, threatening, harassing, hateful, sexually explicit, that reveals private information about anyone (such as home addresses, phone numbers or information about minors or victims), that infringes someone else's rights, or that is spam or advertising outside the paid placements we offer. Everything submitted may be reviewed, and we may decline, edit, hide or remove any content and restrict any user at our discretion. Comments are the views of the people who post them, not of GotBusted News.

9. Alerts and notifications

Alerts are a convenience. They can be delayed, incomplete or interrupted, and you should not rely on them for safety-critical decisions. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any alert or from your account.

10. Removal and correction requests

If a record about you is wrong, has been resolved, or you would like it reviewed for removal, send a request through our removal page. Every request is read by a person, and GotBusted News will reply to you by email with the next steps. We can only change what appears on GotBusted News; we cannot change the original record held by a county, court or state agency, or copies made by other websites. More detail is on our Corrections & Removals page.

11. Advertising, sponsors and directories

Advertisements and sponsored placements are labeled. Listings in our business, attorney and services directories are provided by the listed businesses or compiled from public information; we do not endorse, recommend or guarantee anyone listed, and GotBusted News is not a lawyer-referral service. Your dealings with any advertiser or listed business are solely between you and them.

12. Automated assistant

Some features use automated tools to help you search or understand information. Their answers can be wrong or incomplete, they are not legal advice, and you should confirm anything important with the official source or a qualified professional.

13. Links to other sites

We link to official agency sites, court systems, registries and other third parties. We do not control those sites and are not responsible for their content, availability or how they handle your information.

14. Our content and brand

The GotBusted News name, logo, design, original articles, graphics and the way our databases are compiled and presented belong to the owner and operator of GotBusted News or its licensors and are protected by law. Public records themselves remain public; these terms do not claim ownership of government information.

15. Disclaimers

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, availability, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement, to the fullest extent the law allows.

16. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, GotBusted News, its owner and operator, and their owners, staff and partners are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for any loss arising from your use of, or reliance on, the Service or any record published on it. Our total liability for any claim relating to the Service is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim or one hundred U.S. dollars. Some jurisdictions do not allow these limits, in which case they apply only as far as the law permits.

17. Indemnity

You agree to defend and hold harmless GotBusted News, its owner and operator, and their owners and staff from claims, losses and costs (including reasonable attorney's fees) arising from your content, your misuse of the Service, or your violation of these terms or the law.

18. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New Mexico, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute will be brought in the state or federal courts located in New Mexico, and you consent to their jurisdiction, unless the law where you live gives you the right to bring a claim elsewhere.

19. Changes and termination

We may update these terms from time to time. When we do, we change the date at the top of this page, and for material changes we will give notice on the Service or by email to account holders. Continuing to use the Service after a change means you accept the updated terms. We may change, suspend or discontinue any part of the Service at any time. If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest stays in effect.

20. Contact

Questions about these terms can be sent through our contact page. Requests about a specific record go through the removal page.