In the US, getting arrested is no child’s play – except for these California cops.
The Murrieta Police Department have been posting hilarious arrest and lineup photos with suspects’ faces replaced by LEGO minifig heads to comply with a new state law protecting offenders’ rights.
Images on the department’s Instagram page show the LEGO blocks with a variety of facial expressions – crying, frowning, smirking or raging – digitally superimposed onto the bodies of people being busted.
One appears to show two people handcuffed in the back of a squad car – with the LEGO face on one angrily looking at the other, whose toy head is crying.
Photos: Murrieta Police Department
Another shows five people in a lineup – completely unrecognizable because of the toy heads.
The Photoshop-savvy law enforcement agency explained March 18 that they are shielding detainees’ faces to comply with a new state law prohibiting the release of mugshots and booking photos of those accused of nonviolent crimes.
The law, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom last September and implemented on January 01, also requires police departments to remove other mugshots from social media after fourteen days.
The practice is nothing new for the Murrieta police: they have been obscuring suspects’ faces for a couple of years now, with emoji faces, characters like "The Grinch" and "Shrek", and yes, even "Barbie" heads.
Posts on their social pages have included people caught stealing phones, shoplifting, taking part in drug use or sales, soliciting, or other non-violent crimes.
But once LEGO got wind, they put the kibosh on it.
"The LEGO Group reached out to us and respectfully asked us to refrain from using their intellectual property in our social media content which of course we understand and will comply with", said Lt. Jeremy Durrant of the Murrieta Police Department.
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