Toy company makes request after altered images – which hide suspects’ identities in line with state law – go viral
A southern California 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.
…
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.
I can appreciate your point of view and I realize not every “sex crime” is a sicko pedophile. Even a teenager sending a nude photo to their boyfriend/girlfriend can be considered a sex crime in many places. So there are gray areas.
However, I stand by the fact that I would absolutely want to know if my next door neighbor was a rapist, pedophile or producer/collector of child porn. That’s just the father/husband in me being protective of my family.
The father in me also wants to know… Kind of. I only want to know if there is someone that might actually do something. If they don’t do anything to my kid, I don’t think it’s any of my business what this person has done or hasn’t done. That’s for the courts and police to deal with. Since “only tell me when you’re up to no good” is not possible, I actually prefer to not know.
A system whereby authorities check somehow of they have contact to possible victims and only warn those would be ideal, but how would you implement something like that in reality?