With face masks becoming the norm in these COVID-19 times, criminals are misusing them to hide their identity while carrying out their crimes.
According to reports, criminals are making use of face masks to easily blend in with customers at malls or banks. Because of these masks, they are also able to evade CCTV cameras.
“If it were pre-COVID 19, I could have averted the happening by finding veiled people chasing me. But now it is normal. They looted me and sped away. One had face mask while the other wore a helmet,” shared APP senior reporter Ishtiaq Ahmed who was robbed of Rs800,000 in Islamabad on September 23 in broad daylight.
He said the mask provided a perfect cover to the robbers, adding that they can hold up any bank or shop with their covered faces and escape unchecked as the police rarely bother to confiscate the bikes carrying no or non-standard number plates.
In another robbery of Rs1.5 million in Islamabad on September 30, a masked man was seen inside a bank who apparently intimated his assistants on phone having witnessed a man leaving the bank with a cash bag.
“Earlier the bandanna or mask was a risky proposition for criminals. Nowadays it is normal but scary too. We can’t distinguish between customers and criminals,” a bank employee said.
Talking to APP, a senior police officer, who did not want to be named, said though the crime increase had nothing to do with face mask. However, he agreed that it made it easier for the criminals to blend in.
He agreed that under anti-COVID SOPs, a provision could be created to allow security staff outside banks or malls to ask visitors to remove face mask at the entrance to allow cameras to capture the face.
He also said that other than face coverings, criminals or suspected people could also be singled out through their body language, movement or confidence when questioned.
Not only in Pakistan, criminals’ wearing surgical masks is an issue getting global attention with some countries also pondering to revise SOPs or making specialised security arrangements to keep the criminals from entering establishments.
The installation of vestibules, the use of high-quality cameras and identification software are being used to identify the face behind masks. In America, police have directed people, to note some special sign of the masked criminals like shoes or jacket brand, belt, socks color, face scars, or tattoos to make identification easier.
