McDonald’s CEO: Employees Could Call Cops on Customers Who Refuse to Wear Masks

McDonald’s employees may begin calling the police on customers who refuse to wear masks in their establishments, company CEO Chris Kempczinski said during a Thursday appearance on CBS This Morning.

McDonald’s has put in a series of safety precautions in the era of the novel coronavirus, including increased sanitization and cleaning and requiring customers to wear face coverings in the establishment beginning August 1.

“In those situations where a customer declines to wear a face covering, we’ll put in place additional procedures to take care of them in a friendly, expedited way,” McDonald’s said in a statement.

CEO Chris Kempczinski, however, suggested that employees could involve law enforcement in cases where customers refuse to wear a face covering.

“We’re spending a lot of time right now in our restaurants making sure we can keep our crews safe, making sure we can keep our customers safe,” he told CBS This Morning.

“We’ve for quite some time required our crew to wear masks, but we thought that in light of what we’re seeing, it’s prudent now that we also ask our customers to wear masks in the restaurant as well,” he continued.

“If someone is unwilling to wear a mask and comply with our rules, that might be where we might bring in law enforcement,” he added.

Kempczinski noted that many customers have been understanding and expressed the belief that “the vast majority of people, vast majority of Americans understand why it’s important to be wearing a mask.”

McDonald’s is one of the latest major establishments to require customers to wear masks, including Target, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, and Starbucks.

Mask mandates have remained a point of contention across the country, particularly as Dr. Anthony Fauci, who previously dismissed the need for face coverings March, advises the public to wear them, despite breaking his own recommendations himself.

Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states only that masks “may” help prevent people who have COVID-19 from “spreading the virus to others.”

Despite the widespread mask mandates, many retailers have indicated that they will not have employees enforce the mask mandates as a means to avoid escalating tensions with customers.