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You may want to lower your mask next time you enter a store in New York City.
Mayor Eric Adams says shop owners and staff should bar those wearing masks from entering as a way to prevent robberies. He suggested this during a radio interview on 1010 WINS on Monday saying that masks make it impossible to identify would-be thieves.
“We need to use the technology we have available to identify those shoplifters and those who are committing serious crimes,” he said. “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, and we’re really putting the call out.”
He says the city is working with stores to address safety measures, including stopping people wearing masks from entering, to “zero in on this national phenomena [sic] of shoplifting taking place in our country and city.”
He says people can continue to wear their masks inside after initially taking them off at the door.
The mayor said that in addition to having shopkeepers look for masked individuals entering their shops, the NYPD is “beefing up” its coverage in business improvement districts and high shopping areas and its surveillance.
“And we have something called paid detail where uniform officers are allowed during their off-duty hours to do some of the security at many of our stores and locations,” he said. “It has always been successful. I recall, when I was a police officer, it being utilized, and we are calling on those high-end stores to also continue to do so.”
If you’re wondering why all of a sudden there’s a focus on shoplifting, it’s because the NYPD reported an uptick.
According to CBS, the NYPD says it hasn’t seen shoplifting numbers like this since 1995. The NYPD reports that there were more than 26,000 complaints of shoplifting from January 1 through September 12, 2021, compared to the same time period in 2020, which was over 20,000.
That being said, the city more recently has seen a decline in crime across most key categories—from murder to petit larceny— in January and February this year compared with the same period last year, according to the New York Times.
Still, over the weekend, a 67-year-old man was shot and killed inside an Upper East Side deli during a robbery. The victim, who was behind the counter Friday night, was robbed by a person in a mask and white hazmat suit, according to the New York Daily News. The suspect demanded a customer get down on the floor and empty his pockets, too.
Outside that deli, the NYPD’s Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey encouraged people to drop their masks as “a peace offering” and “a sign of safety for store workers,” the Daily News reports. “When we walk in, we should take down our masks,” he said. “We should let them know that they’re not in any danger, any harm, that we’re customers, we’re here to help them.”