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New York, NY--The New York Police Department is urging businesses to require customers to remove their face masks and show their faces before being allowed into stores, citing increased crimes committed by individuals wearing masks to conceal their identities.

[Representative image via Flickr Commons]

According to a news report, this recommendation marks a reversal from the previous norm during the pandemic, when mask-wearing was mandated in public places. Many businesses required customers to wear masks on their premises. However, some businesses now ban customers from wearing masks to identify potential thieves. The NYPD is calling on businesses to make this a "condition of entry," allowing customers to wear masks after identifying themselves.

"We're seeing far too often where people are coming up to our businesses, sometimes with masks and latex gloves, and they're being buzzed in, they're being allowed to enter into the store, and then we have a robbery or some kind of property being stolen," NYPD chief of department Jeffrey Maddrey said recently in an address to the local business community, as per the report.

The appeal follows incidents of theft where individuals wearing masks and gloves have entered stores and stolen property.

Learn more in this report.