Mug shots on WRAL.com

WRAL.com posts mug shot collections from felony arrests in Durham, Orange, Johnston and Chatham counties.

The information, which also includes names, charges and identifying information such as date of birth and address, is pulled directly from law enforcement databases in each county. The images do not include arrests for misdemeanor charges.

According to John Conway, general manager of WRAL.com, the news organization has made an effort to avoid dated or reputation-damaging information revealed by search engines. That means they're only accessible by browsing the photo galleries on the site.

"Images are stored on our servers for two weeks, then deleted," Conway said. "We do not index the data for internal search, nor do we allow search engines to index the images and data."

Individual mug shots are also used in the context of articles on WRAL.com covering newsworthy crimes or arrests relevant to the audience. Those mug shots remain in the online archive.