MURRIETA – An Inland Empire police department has been handcuffed by Lego after the toy company asked the agency to stop adding Lego heads to cover the faces of suspects in images it shares on social media.

The Murrieta Police Department has been using Lego heads and emojis to cover people's faces in posts on social sites since at least early 2023. But the altered photos went viral last week after the department posted a statement about its policy, prompting several news articles and, later, the request from Lego.

“Why the covered faces?” the department wrote March 18 in an Instagram post that featured five people in a lineup, their faces covered by Lego heads with varying expressions. The post went on to reference a California law that took effect Jan. 1, limiting departments in sharing mugshots on social media.

Murrieta police had an internal discussion about posting photos of arrestees in general and announced a new department policy on Instagram in January 2023. The community had requested more of their “Weekly Roundup” posts, so the department said it started using the Lego heads and emojis to comply with the law while still engaging with Murrieta residents.

But on March 19, the toy company reached out 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," Lt. Jeremy Durrant said in a statement.

“We are currently exploring other methods to continue publishing our content in a way that is engaging and interesting to our followers,” Durrant wrote, declining further comment.

Lego did not respond to multiple emails from NBC requesting comment

Story Date: April 1, 2024