Murrieta police respond to incident at Lego jail

An engaged police force is an effective police force. This is why police departments across the country often run features on their social media accounts such as “Mug Shot Monday” or “Wanted Wednesday.” The thinking is, the more members of a community engage with police online, the more likely they are to trust and respect them in real life.

Unfortunately, in our digital age, images posted online are forever. So a man falsely charged with a crime could have his professional or even social life ruined by one police department’s decision to post his mug shot online.

Many states have accordingly passed privacy laws that prohibit the posting of mug shots of all nonviolent offenders, and even violent offenders must have their photos taken down after 14 days unless they are a fugitive or a threat to public safety.

The Murrieta Police Department of Riverside County in Southern California found a clever way around California’s mug shot privacy law: Photoshopping the heads of Lego people onto real people. And they are real works of art, too. Lego heads crying, looking shocked or surprised. They’re quite funny.

Which is why they started to go viral this past month, much to the chagrin of the Danish toy-maker that makes Legos. While the Murrieta Police Department had been posting the Lego heads on suspects since January 2023, the Lego company did not ask it to stop until February. And it did.

The law is quite clear: The Murrieta Police Department has no right to use Lego head images without the permission of Lego. And it is understandable why. While the Murrieta Police Department is a law enforcement agency trying to protect the public, a company selling children’s toys does not want its product associated with criminals.

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So it is back to the drawing board for the Murrieta Police Department. “We are currently exploring other methods to continue publishing our content in a way that is engaging and interesting to our followers,” Lt. Jeremy Durrant said in a statement.

We look forward to the department’s next Photoshop brainstorm.