New York City mayor Eric Adams is calling on shopkeepers to demand that prospective customers remove their face masks before entering their stores in a bid to undercut shoplifting.
“Do not allow people to enter the store without taking off their face mask and then once they’re inside they can continue to wear if they so desire to do so,” Adams told 1010-WINS.
“When you see these mask-wearing people, oftentimes it’s not about being fearful of the pandemic. It’s fearful of the police catching [them] for their deeds,” the mayor added.
The announcement comes on the heels of similar statements made by the New York Police Department (NYPD) chief of department Jeffrey Maddrey. “People are coming up to our businesses, sometimes with masks, sometimes masks, hoods and latex gloves, and they’re being allowed, they’re being buzzed in and allowed to enter the store and we have a robbery,” the department chief told a local news outlet last Tuesday.
“We are asking the businesses to make this a condition of entry, that people when they come in, they show their face, they should identify themselves,” Maddrey noted.
Adams argued that the new policy will allow retailers to use facial-recognition technology to identify habitual offenders.
However, not all business owners are happy with the announcement. Francisco Marte, a store owner in the Bronx, told a local radio station that he fears little will come of the new anti-shoplifting push.
“That would be great if everyone come with their face up so the camera can see, we all can see. But we cannot force them to take off their mask,” Marte said noting that he plans to introduce facial recognition cameras.
Adams’s comments come after the NYPD released crime statistics last Friday showing a ten percent decrease in reports of retail theft in February compared to the same month last year, when the city experienced record-breaking levels of shoplifting. The spike in shoplifting has prompted coalitions of New York business owners to beef up deterrence measures, including by deploying dogs and private security guards in heavily trafficked commercial areas.
Although violent crimes such as shootings and murder have decreased compared with 2021, property-related charges such as robberies, grand larceny, and burglaries have increased considerably over the same period.