The police department of Murrieta, California, regularly posts a summary of arrests on social media to prove this law and order no words are meaningless in the town between Los Angeles and San Diego.
To protect the identity of the arrested suspects, the police make their faces unrecognizable, often by sticking yellow Lego heads over them. This results in funny photos on Instagram of dolls being handcuffed with an indignant facial expression.
Police departments across the US have similar ‘Mugshot Mondays’ or ‘Wanted Wednesdays’ to inform their residents about how to tackle crime, but since last week, photoshopped photos of California police have been making the rounds on the internet. On March 18, Murrieta police posted a striking photo on social media of a lineup featuring five Lego figures. Under the title “Why the covered faces?” she clarified that a new law in California since the beginning of this year regulates the sharing of so-called mugshots on social media much more strictly.
Under the new law, all shared arrest photos on social media must be deleted after fourteen days, unless the suspect is still on the run and would pose an immediate danger to society. In any case, attention had been paid to the privacy of the suspects for some time, because the mugshots could undermine their presumption of innocence and would also complicate the later search for work.
The police department writes that it is “proud of its transparency towards the community”, but also states that it “wants to honor everyone’s rights and protections as included in the law, including those of suspects”. That is why the Californian police choose to cover the suspects in this way, so that they can continue to inform society within the rules of the law.
A good privacy solution or rather a loophole in the law? There is still legal discussion about this, but in any case it also came to the attention of Lego itself last week. The Danish toy manufacturer is not pleased with this criminal association and has now contacted the Murrieta police. “They have respectfully asked us to no longer use their intellectual property on social media,” said Lt. Jeremy Durrant. “We understand that, of course, and we will comply with it.”
This seems to put an end to the posts in which Lego figures end up in precarious situations. “We are now exploring other methods to keep our posts engaging and interesting for our followers.”
