No police are needed to enforce California’s new no-mask law, senators say

While police chiefs say they won’t enforce the state’s new ban on masks for law enforcement officers, including federal immigration agents, California lawmakers say there’s another way to penalize officers who conceal their identities.

Senate Bill 627, known as the No Secret Police Act, can be enforced through the court system, creating a civil penalty for officers who violate the law, the bill’s authors say.

In other words: Just sue the violators.

“People can file these suits against ICE officers even if the LA police chief decides he doesn’t want to bother to enforce the law,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco who co-authored the bill. “The video and photographic evidence of these enforcement actions that Californians have been collecting for months will allow them to do just that.”

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department both indicated last week the agencies will not enforce the ban on law enforcement wearing masks, with McDonnell referring to risks that could arise with two armed law enforcement agencies becoming involved in a confrontation.

“It’s disappointing that LAPD doesn’t want to enforce California law to protect our communities in the face of this assault,” Wiener said, referring to the masked federal immigration officers descending on local communities. “Luckily, the No Secret Police Act was crafted to hold ICE accountable without the need for local law enforcement to get involved.”

Individuals, groups, city attorneys and district attorneys all can file suits against any agencies, officers or agents who mask up after Jan. 1, according to the law.

The civil penalty starts at $10,000.

The law also requires any law enforcement agencies operating in California to have a publicly posted mask policy by July 1.

The constitutionality of the law, which was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September 2025, is being challenged in court, with the U.S. Department of Justice arguing immigration agents should be able to mask for their safety, including avoiding doxxing, and that the law violates the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, which says states can’t control operations of the federal government.

“A police chief does not get to pick and choose which laws will be enforced and which will go ignored. This stance squarely contradicts the chief’s own claim at the same press conference that public safety is the government’s foremost responsibility and, without it, everything else fails,” state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, a co-author of the bill, said.

The Pasadena Democrat also criticized the LAPD’s non-enforcement of the law.

“Public safety does not exist when immigration raids with masked agents directly destabilize communities and erode trust. Statements like this create a broader ripple effect that undermine consistent enforcement of our laws and feed into the current federal administration’s arbitrary behaviors,” she said. “I expect more from a leader who has a distinguished public service career and who has taken an oath to uphold all our laws and protect the rights and safety of millions of diverse Angelenos.”