Shop staff 'should also remove anti-maskers as police can't patrol every supermarket'

Stores and shop owners have a responsibility to regulate mask wearing in their premises because police can’t patrol them all, a top officer has said.

Metropolitan Police commissioner Dame Cressida Dick added managers and staff should call police if customers become “very rude or violent” when confronted about not wearing a face covering without a reasonable excuse.

The Met has warned that officers will move to fining people quicker if they are clearly breaking the coronavirus rules, but Dick said that will not extend to police regularly taking to the aisles of Asda and Aldi.

“We can’t patrol and we won’t be patrolling all supermarkets – that will be impossible and not appropriate,” she told LBC.

“I think there is a responsibility on stores and store owners and store managers. I don’t underestimate that on occasion it can be a difficult job.”

Her comments came after the Met’s continued clampdown on rule-breakers saw officers issue more than 140 fixed penalty notices worth £39,000 in the London boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Hackney over last weekend.

On Monday, 14 seafood hauliers who were protesting Brexit’s repercussions on their industry at Whitehall were fined.

Dick also stressed that failure to provide details to officers could see enforcement escalate from a fine to an arrest.

“I think it’s quite right that my officers are out there dealing with people, the small minority who are failing to comply, and on occasion issuing tickets, or if they refuse to give their names and addresses, and some people do, then of course they can be arrested,” she said.

Earlier on LBC, the commissioner said she was “baffled” that officers were not being prioritised for a coronavirus vaccine when they regularly come into close contact with members of the public.

Watch: The lockdown rules