Not wearing a mask in Columbia? Your risk of getting ticketed is going up
The grace period is over.
While Columbia has had a mask ordinance in place for nearly five months amid the COVID-19 pandemic — and recently beefed up that ordinance to include heftier fines and expanded areas where masks are required — tickets for violations of the ordinance have been relatively sparse in the Capital City.
But as coronavirus cases threaten to careen out of control nationwide, city officials are signaling they are prepared to be more stringent in enforcing the municipal mask mandate.
Columbia initially put in a mask ordinance back in June, and was among the first cities in the state to do so. It has extended it a number of times since. In its earlier iterations, the law required masks inside commercial businesses in the city and carried a $25 fine for citizens caught violating the measure.
But on Nov. 5, Columbia City Council expanded the ordinance, upping the fine for individuals to $100. The city also now is requiring masks in all public places, including, per the law, “in situations where distances between people change frequently such as a busy sidewalk, waiting area, or popular outdoor area where it is impractical or impossible to maintain six feet of distance.”
A violation of the ordinance is considered a civil penalty, not a criminal offense, and the actual number of citations has been light. According to Columbia Fire Chief Aubrey Jenkins, as of the afternoon of Nov. 11, the city had issued 45 mask tickets since June. Nearly half that number came on Halloween night in Five Points.
The fire department has been the agency answering complaints about mask violations. Department personnel have tried to be judicious with individuals they encounter without masks, first offering a warning and requesting they put on a mask, Jenkins said. Recently the department also has been handing out masks to folks who might not have one.
“We always ask for people to put their masks on, and usually people comply,” Jenkins said. “Of course, if we come back around and people just blatantly defy it and take it back off, we’ll go ahead and write the citations.”
But with COVID-19 surging in the U.S., Jenkins noted that, while the department will still offer warnings, the likelihood of violators receiving a citation is on the rise.
“We are doing that now,” Jenkins said. “For a while, we weren’t issuing any tickets. But, we are doing it now. The grace period is over. But, we will still ask people to put their masks on.”
Coronavirus cases hit a national one-day high on Nov. 11, with nearly 143,000 new cases, according to The New York Times. Meanwhile, national COVID-19 hospitalizations were at a record high 61,964 as of Nov. 10.
On a local level, Richland County has had the ninth highest rate of COVID-19 in South Carolina, at about 4,129 cases per 100,000 residents since the start of the pandemic, per state Department of Health and Environmental Control data. There were 265 confirmed coronavirus deaths in the county as of Nov. 11.
At-large City Councilwoman Tameika Isaac Devine acknowledged there hasn’t been a wealth of mask tickets written during the last five months. But she also stressed that Council didn’t want to operate with too much of a heavy hand initially.
“Because we knew there was so much resistance to the mask ordinance, we wanted to start kind of soft, encouraging people and educating them as to why (they should wear a mask),” Devine said. “We were very intentional in the very beginning about being more soft-handed. But I think at this point there has been enough warning.
“The city is serious and there is a mask ordinance in place.”
Not everyone has been pleased with the city’s enforcement on masks.
In a recent op-ed in The State, medical company owner and Main Street businessman Scott Middleton pointed out the large crowds packed together waiting to get into bars in Five Points on Halloween night. Ultimately 22 mask citations were written in Five Points that evening.
“But the scene that took place in Five Points was clear proof that city leadership has no interest in stemming the spread of COVID-19,” Middleton wrote. “The only thing the city leadership cares about is getting a headline in the newspaper and scoring political points.”
Third-term Mayor Steve Benjamin stressed the city has never set out to simply write citations for mask violations, but to cultivate an environment where citizens actually take the precautionary step.
“The goal never has been to write tickets,” Benjamin told The State. “We don’t want to criminalize enforcing smart, thoughtful public health measures. But, it’s clear that we need broad adoption of these practices if we are going to get our arms around this pandemic.
“With penalties increased, I think you are seeing maybe even tougher enforcement, but greater compliance. Some people would sneeze at $25 bucks. You don’t sneeze at $100 bucks.”
