Virginia Lawmakers Consider Civil Suits, Penalties for Masked Law Enforcement

Virginia House and Senate bills that would regulate how law enforcement officers wear facial coverings have passed their respective chambers.

Del. Charlie Schmidt, D-Richmond, introduced House Bill 1482, which prohibits certain law enforcement officers from wearing facial coverings that conceal their identities while performing official duties, with exceptions.

Violations of the proposals could carry criminal consequences. The bills would make it a Class 1 misdemeanor for an officer to wear a prohibited face covering and subject officers to disciplinary action.

The House bill allows those wrongfully injured by officers wearing a facial covering to file a lawsuit for actual damages or $10,000, whichever is greater. Legal action can be taken whether or not a law enforcement officer was charged or convicted of an alleged violation.

Sen. Saddam Azlan Salim, D-Fairfax, introduced Senate Bill 352, which includes federal officers in its scope.

“Passing this bill will go a long way to restoring trust between our communities and the law enforcement agencies who serve us,” Salim said on the Senate floor.

The Senate proposal calls for a model policy to be created around facial coverings. It puts less emphasis on civil liability and shifts enforcement to agency policy. This would make violations a misdemeanor only if departments fail to adopt state-guided facial covering rules.

The bills include exceptions for clear face shields that do not conceal identity, N95 or surgical masks for disease prevention, protective equipment for hazardous conditions, underwater gear, motorcycle helmets, and coverings used by SWAT or other specialized tactical teams.

Dana Schrad, executive director of the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, is concerned about the bill’s misdemeanor penalty and said the organization opposes it.

“That rises to the level of conduct that is just not consistent with other Class 1 misdemeanors,” Schrad said. “We said, first of all this is not really a problem with Virginia law enforcement. A lot of the effort here is to try to get charges against ICE officers for wearing masks, but of course, we can’t charge federal officers.”

These proposals would limit defenses typically available in lawsuits involving law enforcement officers. This means that with certain exceptions, immunity and liability limitations would not apply to class action lawsuits brought under the new section.

Qualified immunity is not absolute immunity, Schrad said. It gives an officer acting within the scope of the law the chance to defend themselves and their agency concerning “the choices that have been made in the heat of the moment.”

“I mean that’s just the nature of law enforcement work,” Schrad said. “Without qualified immunity, our folks would be hesitant to do their jobs at all or even come into the profession.”

The bills would also require on-duty officers to display a badge or insignia bearing their name and the name of their employing agency, with exceptions for undercover operations.

Both measures were passed on party-line votes and now move to the opposite chambers, where lawmakers can amend the proposals before deciding whether to advance them.

By Nathan Edwards

Capital News Service is a program of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Richard T. Robertson School of Media and Culture. Students in the program provide state government coverage for a variety of media outlets in Virginia.