A police division in California that began obscuring its suspects’ faces with Lego heads will stop the follow after the toy firm reportedly reached out and informed it to please cease.
The Murrieta Police Division in California has been hiding the faces of its arrested suspects for years, usually in a wide range of methods. Final 12 months, for example, the police division Photoshopped the faces of Shrek and Donkey onto two individuals it arrested for allegedly stealing $1,800 price of merchandise from Goal. The division’s current follow of sticking Lego heads, which regularly boast comical expressions, on the faces of individuals it arrests didn’t make everybody snicker, although.
Murrieta Police Division Lt. Jeremy Durrant informed Fox News final Friday that it might cease utilizing Lego heads in suspect photographs, which it shares to social media, after being contacted by Lego.
“The Lego Group reached out to us and respectfully requested us to chorus from utilizing their mental property in our social media content material which in fact we perceive and can adjust to,” Durrant mentioned, based on Fox Information. “We’re presently exploring different strategies to proceed publishing our content material in a manner that’s participating and fascinating to our followers.”
Gizmodo reached out to the Murrieta Police Division and Lego for touch upon Tuesday however didn’t instantly obtain a response.
Some could also be asking: How did the police division get into the behavior of pasting Lego heads—and hiding the individual’s face typically—onto footage of suspects? In a Fb put up final November, the police division mentioned it determined to undertake the follow after the California Legislature handed AB 1475 in 2021, which banned police departments within the state from posting reserving photographs of suspects for non-violent crimes besides beneath particular circumstances.
“A few of the causes [the decision was taken] had been the presumption of innocence till confirmed responsible in a court docket of regulation [and] the consequences a put up might have on a person or their households outdoors of the legal proceedings they could be topic to (public shaming),” the post read.
As well as, a brand new regulation that got here into impact in California in January, AB 994, requires regulation enforcement to remove suspects’ mugshots from social media after 14 days. The Murrieta Police Division nonetheless has its obscured mugshots relationship to not less than final 12 months up on its Fb account, so it’s not clear whether or not this new regulation applies to photographs on social media the place the suspect’s face just isn’t proven.
Lego’s purported request that the police division cease utilizing its toys to cowl the faces of individuals suspected of committing crimes is sensible. The very last thing a beloved toy firm like Lego wants is for fogeys and youngsters to start out associating its iconic Lego heads with crime or get the concept that committing a criminal offense is enjoyable as a result of police used Lego heads in a photograph.
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