US: Police will no longer impose Lego faces to hide suspect's identity. Here's why
California's Murrieta Police Department will no longer impose Lego faces to hide suspect identities
A police department in the United States was forced to end its practice of using Lego heads to hide suspect faces after Lego contacted the department to stop using its intellectual property. The Murrieta Police Department in southern Californiastarted doing this due to a new state law that prohibits law enforcement departments from sharing suspect photos for nonviolent crimes unless specified circumstances exist.
Additionally, the new law requires the agencies to remove suspect mugshots from social media after 14 days unless special circumstances exist.
For months, the Murrieta Police Department in southern California was posting images of suspects of purportedly non-violent crimes with Lego heads digitally imposed over their faces.
Also watch |Thousands gather to create world's largest Lego display in France
But Lego Group reached out to the police department earlier this week and "respectfully asked to refrain their intellectual property", Forbes reported.
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The Murrieta police, from now on, will not use Lego heads to comply with the state's privacy laws.
The police department is now exploring new methods of publishing content "in a way that is engaging and interesting" to its social media followers.
Spotlight of California Assembly Bill 994
California Assembly Bill 994, which became lawon Jan. 1 earlier this year, among other things, requires police departments to remove booking photos of suspects shared on social media after 14 days "unless specified circumstances exist."
It also requires police departments to use a suspect's provided pronouns and name in any social posts.
But the requirement to cover suspects' faces in booking photos also dates back to a 2021 law that prohibited police departments from posting booking photos of suspects accused of non-violent crimes, with some exceptions.
The department’s practice of covering suspects’ faces goes back until at least 2022, according to its Instagram page. It has cited the presumption of innocence till proven guilty for all suspects and concern about workload to determine which photos would be posted and which would not be posted.
(With inputs from agencies)