Special public hearing set for Louisville mask ordinance

This story has been updated to include a statement from Councilman Dan Seum Jr.

Community members will have a chance to share their thoughts on Louisville's mask ordinance at a special Public Safety Committee meeting Oct. 30.

Sign-ups will begin at 4:30 p.m. at the Newburg Community Center and the meeting will start at 5 p.m. There will be a limit of 40 speakers and each speaker will be permitted to speak for no more than three minutes.

Earlier this month, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg announced the city would re-enforce the 1983 mask ordinance, which bans people from wearing face coverings in public, in an attempt to combat gun violence.

The move came shortly after a shooting in the parking lot of Pleasure Ridge High School, which left two children in the hospital. More than a week later, 17-year-old Aaron Esters died from his injuries.

Suspects in that shooting were wearing "surgical masks and other face coverings to conceal their identities," Greenberg said.

This prompted the "re-enforcement" of the ordinance, which has not been enforced since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ordinance prohibits people from wearing "any mask, device or hood whereby any portion of the face is so hidden or covered as to conceal the identity of the wearer" while in public. There are some exemptions, like for children under the age of 16, but no existing ones for medical conditions. Greenberg committed to working with the Louisville Metro Council on additional amendments, but no proposals have yet been introduced.

Greenberg told people wearing masks for medical reasons to continue wearing them.

Councilman Dan Seum Jr., vice chair of the Public Safety committee, said he supports Greenberg's decision to reinstate the ordinance but also appreciates the need to update it to ensure residents stay safe.

"The Mask Ordinance was used in the past and existed decades prior to the outbreak of COVID," Seum said. "I am confident that we will be able to find a way to respect the health needs of some of our citizens, while also making sure that those using masks for criminal activity are stopped."

Still, some community advocates fear enforcement of the mask ban will create an opportunity for Louisville Metro Police to discriminate against and profile people when determining whether a person is wearing a mask for medical reasons or not.

"What exactly are (police) going to do, other than to sum up a bunch of other characteristics in which they're forced to broadly draw a profile on who they might go in and harass or fine? And so, that's incredibly problematic," president and CEO of the Louisville Urban League, Lyndon Pryor, previously said.

Chief of Police Paul Humphrey said officers would look at the "totality of circumstances" when approaching people wearing masks and that police would not walk up to people and immediately arrest them for not wearing a mask.

At least one person has been arrested and charged under the ordinance.

Reach reporter Eleanor McCrary at [email protected] or at @ellie_mccrary on X, formerly known as Twitter.