Miami Beach police can now issue face-mask citations to people who violate COVID order
After an executive order from Gov. Ron DeSantis led the city of Miami Beach to stop enforcing its COVID-19 mask mandate, the city has authorized police to start issuing citations to anyone who refuses to wear a facial covering leading up to Thanksgiving and over the weekend.
Under the city’s new enforcement plan, police will only issue a citation if the violator refuses to wear a mask provided to them. The policy change, announced Tuesday by city manager Jimmy Morales, goes into effect Wednesday and will last at least through the weekend.
The citations will carry a $50 fine, to be collected when legally allowed. Police will enforce the order in commercial corridors citywide.
“We will evaluate the effectiveness of the effort this weekend to determine if and how to best continue with the individual citations,” a city spokeswoman said in a statement.
The governor’s Sept. 25 order suspended the “collection of fines and penalties associated with COVID-19 enforced upon individuals,” weakening local mask mandates. While some South Florida municipalities — like Miami-Dade and the cities of Miami and Key West — have continued to issue face-mask citations, Miami Beach stopped enforcing the emergency measure altogether following the DeSantis order.
Meanwhile, Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber has repeatedly implored DeSantis to make masks mandatory statewide,
“My city was among the first municipalities in the nation to require mask usage, and along with Miami-Dade County and Miami we have had orders requiring masks indoors and outside for months,” Gelber wrote in a Sept. 26 letter to DeSantis, responding to his executive order. “We believe these mandates have been a major reason why our virus rate came down after the deadly surge that followed your last reopening.”
Morales, who wields unilateral decision-making powers granted to him by the commission during the city’s state of emergency, authorized the policy change and said he believes enforcing the order in even a limited capacity should encourage safe behavior during a time when holiday gatherings threaten to worsen the surge in COVID-19 cases in Miami-Dade County and nationwide.
“In an effort to be proactive this weekend, I have spoken with Chief [Richard] Clements and starting tomorrow, our police officers in the commercial districts around the city will reach out to individuals that are not wearing masks and first offer them a mask to wear,” Morales wrote in the email. “If the individual refuses, the officer will then issue a citation.”
Miami Beach stopped enforcing mask law. Others didn’t
Broward and Miami-Dade counties both mandate the use of masks in public, but Broward inspectors have not been issuing citations to individuals, enforcing business restrictions instead, a spokesman said.
In Miami-Dade, police continue to enforce the countywide mask mandate, although officers have not issued a single citation in November. Police attribute the decline in citations to the changing habits of residents, not a ramping down of enforcement.
“It has nothing to do with the governor,” said Det. Alvaro Zabaleta, a Miami-Dade Police spokesman. “Our job is to enforce the emergency orders signed by the mayor’s office.”
In the city of Miami, police say they have taken a “more educational approach” to its mask law, but officers reserve the right to issue a citation in “extreme cases,” according to a spokeswoman for the city.
Key West last week toughened its mask law to require that individuals cover their faces even if they are outside and distant from others. In October, the city announced it would continue to issue citations for violations of the order.
But in Miami Beach, police and code officers stopped enforcing the county’s mask mandate after DeSantis signed the executive order. They have continued to enforce the use of masks in businesses.
In a Nov. 19 email to the Herald, the city spokeswoman said the city was “prohibited to issue violations to individuals” under the governor’s order.
“What we do enforce is against businesses that do not require employees or patrons to wear masks,” she wrote.
During a Tuesday press conference with Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and other local leaders to discuss the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in the county, Gelber said he hopes the new enforcement strategy can help limit the spread of the virus during the holidays.
“The holidays approaching in the midst of this ongoing surge, kids coming home for the holidays like mine have, becomes a confluence of various potentially dangerous circumstances,” he said. “I would give you just this: Please wear the mask. My city, although we can no longer impose the fine right now, we will resume giving out free masks and citations if for only the messaging that it is so important to keep that mask on.”
Commissioner Ricky Arriola, who has criticized the city’s coronavirus policies as harmful to businesses, reacted to the new policy in a social media post. He said the city appears to be ignoring state law by empowering police to issue citations.
“Here we are going to issue citations even though the governor has said it’s unenforceable,” Arriola said. “We are going to do it, anyway.”
This story was originally published November 24, 2020 at 1:54 PM.
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