Murrieta is a city in Southern California with just over 100,000 residents. Even though it isn’t a huge city, the Neighborhood Scout, a website that tracks local statistics for potential homebuyers or renters, reported this about the municipality on its website:
The crime rate in Murrieta is considerably higher than the national average across all communities in America from the largest to the smallest, although at 15 crimes per one thousand residents, it is not among the communities with the very highest crime rate. The chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime in Murrieta is 1 in 65. Based on FBI crime data, Murrieta is not one of the safest communities in America. Relative to California, Murrieta has a crime rate that is higher than 40% of the state's cities and towns of all sizes.
It's common for the public to be interested in the details of an arrest, including the crime committed and the appearance of the suspect. However, in California, there is a law that prioritizes the rights of the suspect over the public's right to know by requiring that the faces of certain suspects be concealed. In Murietta, this law has been taken to an extreme level, where police hide suspects' faces with Lego heads.
In an Instagram post, the police department explained the new law this way:
On January 1st, a new law went into effect that restricts the how and when law enforcement agencies in California share suspect photos & mugshots. The new law, Assembly Bill 994 & Penal Code 13665, now prohibits law enforcement from sharing suspect photos for nonviolent crimes, unless specified circumstances exist. Additionally, the new law requires agencies to remove suspect mugshots from social media after 14 days, unless special circumstances exist.
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. 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.
Using something so ridiculous minimizes the severity of crimes and turns serious events into cartoons. People may understand the need to comply with the law, but this approach is inappropriate.
Judge for yourself:
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
The bill:
Requires a police department or sheriff’s office to remove a booking photo shared on the department’s social media page within 14 days unless specific circumstances exist and requires a police department or sheriff’s office sharing a booking photo on social media to use the name and pronouns given by the subject of that photo.
Those specific circumstances are described as:
A police department or sheriff’s office has determined that the suspect is a fugitive or an imminent threat to an individual or to public safety and releasing or disseminating the suspect’s image will assist in locating or apprehending the suspect or reducing or eliminating the threat, or if a judge orders the release or dissemination of the suspect’s image based on a finding that the release or dissemination is in furtherance of a legitimate law enforcement interest.
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Going forward, the left will undoubtedly continue to be soft on crime. However, the Murietta police will no longer use Lego heads to further diminish the seriousness of any criminal’s actions. Lego has instructed the department to stop digitally adding Lego heads onto photos of suspects. Murrieta Police Department Lt. Jeremy Durrant told Fox News Digital in a statement that:
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. We are currently exploring other methods to continue publishing our content in a way that is engaging and interesting to our followers.
Durrant's choice of words to describe the way his department reports criminal activities is revealing. While the reports are supposed to be truthful and informative, Durrant uses them as a chance to downplay the severity of the crimes and make them seem less serious. He uses terms like "engaging" and "interesting" to describe police reports, which is an insult to the intelligence of the people of Murietta.
Thankfully, Lego stepped in and eliminated the visual aspect of this farce. I guess the simple blurring out of the faces wasn’t entertaining enough for the people that Durrant refers to as the department's “followers.”
