Rejected petition Ban balaclavas and ski masks

Balaclavas, commonly known as ski masks or face masks, have unfortunately become synonymous with criminal behaviour, enabling anonymity and facilitating illegal activities.

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Street theft is becoming more and more of a popular crime in London and across the UK. With 91,000 phones being stolen in 2022 and only 2% of these being recovered. The main issue the police face is that if the crime is committed and the suspect is wearing a balaclava they have no way of identifying them and close the case down more or less straight away.

This isn’t the only crime that masked people are committing but they are protected behind the balaclavas they are legally allowed to wear.

This petition was rejected

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.

You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.

You may wish to sign the following petitions, which call for similar same action:

Ban wearing balaclavas in public:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/647362

Ban cyclists from wearing balaclavas without a genuine reason:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/636581

Introduce fines and stop and search powers for wearing a balaclava in public:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/643572

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.

Date submitted 11 October 2023
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