Masks in shops ‘shouldn’t become a policing issue’
The Avon and Somerset Police Federation chairman has said that people not wearing a face mask in a shop shouldn’t become a police issue.
Wearing a face covering will become mandatory in shops and supermarkets in England from tomorrow.
Shopkeepers will be expecting customers to only enter shops if they have got a face mask on, except if they have a medical reason not to wear one.
Throughout the crisis, shoppers in England have not been expected to wear a mask in shops but have been asked to wear them on public transport and in hospitals.
The new measures have sparked worry for some about how they will be enforced in order to help keep people safe.
Andy Roebuck, chair of Avon and
Somerset Police Federation, which represents more than 2,800 police officers in the region, said he didn’t see this as a policing issue.
He said: “The federation’s views and my view is that this shouldn’t become a policing issue per se, it’s a health one. We would encourage regional shopkeepers to take the lead on this and encourage their shoppers to wear a mask.
“Police would obviously respond to an incident, if there is a breach of the peace or disturbance, but we have already seen our demand go back up to what it was before coronavirus.”
Mr Roebuck explained that the police would not have the capacity to respond to calls from shopkeepers about shoppers not wearing masks.
He said: “We’ve already seen that our custody footprint this last weekend has been as high as it was back in July 2017 which was the peak.
“The demand would be too big if we had to take on these calls.”
Mr Roebuck explained that he was awaiting the official guidelines from the NPCC – the National Police Chiefs Council – about how officers are expected to respond.
He said: “The current plan is to encourage individual responsibility, if they don’t then the possibility of lockdowns occurring again increases.
“Further lockdowns is something we want to avoid as it would be terrible for cities to go through, so we all have a part to play now to avoid that.
“We [the police] have made sacrifices in this pandemic and so we want others to do that now with this, there is an element of selfishness in not wearing a mask.”
One Somerset shopkeeper, Les Gilbert, who runs the Chard Newsagents on Fore Street, said that he hoped shoppers would take the initiative on themselves.
Mr Gilbert said: “I am in favour of the measures and I think our role as shopkeepers is to encourage rather than enforce.”
He said that he would only consider calling the police if there was an incident and said that he expected this would be more likely to happen between customers rather than shopkeepers and customers.
He explained: “I think we may get instances where customers are agitated between themselves about someone not wearing a mask.
“I wouldn’t be too surprised at that. I do think that health is more important than any adverse effect on shopping habits so am for wearing masks.”
We would encourage regional shopkeepers to take the lead on this