Mask 2020-04-16 003
Local News

Local police plan to encourage voluntary compliance with face covering requirement

People increasingly have been wearing face coverings since state, national and international health officials began recommending the practice in early April. The practice will be mandated by the state beginning May 1. (Eric Crump/H-F Chronicle)

Homewood and Flossmoor police departments are prepared for a new level of COVID-19 mitigation as a new face covering requirement goes into effect on Friday, May 1.

The emphasis will be on education and encouraging compliance.

A shopper wearing a protective mask heads for a local grocery store in mid-April. People increasingly have been wearing face coverings since state, national and international health officials began recommending the practice in early April. The practice will be mandated by the state beginning May 1. (Eric Crump/H-F Chronicle)

On Thursday, April 23, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced he would extend the stay-at-home order the state has been under since March 21 to combat the spread of COVID-19. The new order goes into effect May 1 and continues until May 30.

One new provision of the order is a requirement for everyone over the age of 2 — and who can medically tolerate it — to wear a face covering or mask when in a public place where it is impractical to maintain six feet of separation between individuals. 

Pritzker has said enforcement of the order will primarily be left up to local law enforcement, but he expects the emphasis to be on education rather than citation or arrest. 

“We’re not encouraging police to stop and arrest people,” he said. “We are encouraging everybody to encourage everybody else they know. People should wear a mask. Private establishments do need to require that everyone entering their establishment should wear a mask.”

In that regard, face covering enforcement will resemble the approach used in Homewood and Flossmoor for promoting compliance with existing social distancing requirements.
Homewood Police Chief Bill Alcott said his officers are prepared to encourage compliance with the order.

“Police officers will handle each situation on a case-by-case basis to appropriately determine what type of enforcement will be taken,” he said. “The Homewood Police Department continues to educate our public on all aspects of the stay at home order.”

Alcott and Flossmoor Police Chief Tod Kamleiter both said residents and visitors to the villages have for the most part complied with social distancing requirements. 

Early on, officers in both villages responded to gatherings that violated the stay-at-home order, but neither village has reported problems resulting from those situations. Kamleiter said the number of occurrences has steadily declined and last week there were no calls to address public gatherings.

“So far we have had no push back in any case where our officers had to remind people of the order,” Kamleiter said. 

Officers in both villages are setting an example by wearing masks and gloves when in public. Kamleiter said Flossmoor officers began the practice in mid-March. Neither department has had a case of COVID-19 among officers.

“We believe by taking this action, along with other cleaning precautions, we have lessened the risks to our officers and the general public,” Alcott said. 

During Sunday’s daily COVID-19 briefing, Pritzker was asked to respond to a video making the rounds on social media that purported to show a house party in Chicago where many people were crowded into a small space. He criticized the judgment of the partygoers.

“By standing together, many people not wearing masks, you’re literally putting everyone around you in danger,” he said. “They are putting you in danger. They are putting their families in danger. Those people have violated not only the intention of the order we put out but they have violated the trust of their friends and family.”

Pritzker said if people do not voluntarily comply with the order, it can be enforced by a charge of reckless conduct. 

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