The toy company Lego has had to ask a police department in Southern California to stop adding Lego heads to cover the faces of suspects in the images it shares on social media.
The reasoning behind the Lego heads being used by the Murrieta Police Department is a new California law, which took effect on Jan. 1 and limited how departments can share mugshots on social media.
“The Murrieta Police Department prides itself in its transparency with the community, but also honors everyone’s rights & protections as afforded by law; even suspects,” the department wrote in a post on Instagram.
In order to abide by the law, the department used emojis and Lego heads to cover people’s faces.
It shared this in a post last week, which showed five people in a lineup with their faces covered by Lego heads with varying expressions.
But while the department gained a little media attention for its creative workaround for the law, it also garnered the attention of the toy giant.
According to Lt. Jeremy Durrant, who shared a statement with the Associated Press, Lego 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.”
Now, the department is looking to continue its efforts to provide information to the public and abide by the current legal standard.
“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.