The Murrieta Police Department is using Lego heads to hide suspects’ identities in booking photos and mug shots to comply with a new California law that prevents police from sharing photos of individuals accused of nonviolent crimes, reported KTLA.
"The Murrieta Police Department (MPD) prides itself in its transparency with the community, but also honors everyone’s rights & protections as afforded by law; even suspects," a post on the its social media reads.
"In order to share what is happening in Murrieta, we chose to cover the faces of suspects to protect their identity while still aligning with the new law," it added.
The law — Assembly Bill 994 and Penal Code 13665 — also requires that mugshots posted on social media be deleted after 14 days unless special circumstances exist.
The MPD started using Lego heads to obscure the faces of suspects long before the law went into effect on Jan. 1, according to a police spokesperson who spoke with Fox News.
"In the interest of keeping our residents updated on public safety events in our community while, at the same time, respecting the new regulations, we’ve been obscuring the faces of suspects in our social media posts in various ways. We’ve been doing this for the past couple of years, and it’s nothing new to us."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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