Face Masking Violations, Policing, and COVID-19 Death Rates: A Spatial Analysis in New York City ZIP Codes

Abstract

The use of face masks during a pandemic and compliance with state and local mandates has been a divisive issue in the United States. We document variation in face masking violation rates involving police enforcement in New York City and examine the association between police-enforced face masking violations and COVID-19-related death rates. We assemble a Zone Improvement Plan (ZIP) code–level data set from the New York City Open Data, Department of Health, and the American Community Survey (2014–2018). We use maps to demonstrate the spatial patterning of police-enforced face masking violation rates and COVID-19-related death rates. Using a Bayesian spatial analysis approach to model police-enforced face masking violations, we find considerable variation in police-enforced face masking violation rates and COVID-19-related death rates across New York City and similarities in their spatial distribution, with higher rates for both measures found in Brooklyn and the Bronx. The positive association between police-enforced face masking violation rates and COVID-19-related death rates holds after including other covariates. The percentage of non-Hispanic Blacks, Hispanics, and households with limited English proficiency are positively associated with police-enforced face masking violations. This study extends the COVID-19 literature by reporting more aggressive enforcement of face masking rules in minority and limited-English-proficiency communities.

流行病期间, 戴口罩并遵守美国各州和地方法规, 是一个引发争议的问题。我们描述了纽约市执法中发现的违反戴口罩法规的比例变化, 研究了口罩违规与COVID-19死亡率之间的关系。我们收集了来自纽约市开放数据、卫生部和美国社区调查（2014-2018）的邮政编码尺度数据集。利用地图展示了执法口罩违规率和COVID-19死亡率的空间模式。使用贝叶斯空间分析方法, 对执法口罩违规行为进行建模。我们发现, 执法口罩违规率和COVID-19死亡率在纽约市各地有很大的差异, 并且在空间分布上具有相似性。布鲁克林和布朗克斯的两个指标都较高。考虑到其它协变量后, 执法口罩违规率与COVID-19死亡率之间的正相关关系仍然成立。非西裔黑人、西裔和低英语水平家庭的百分比, 与执法口罩违规数量呈正相关。这项研究拓展了COVID-19文献, 认为在少数民族社区和低英语水平社区应当更积极地执行戴口罩法规。

El uso de tapabocas durante una pandemia y el acatamiento a los mandatos nacionales y locales han sido temas que dividen las opiniones en los Estados Unidos. Documentamos la variación en las tasas de violaciones por el uso del tapabocas que involucraron la intervención policial en la Ciudad de Nueva York, y examinamos la asociación entre las intervenciones policiales por contravenciones en el uso del tapabocas y las tasas de mortalidad relacionadas con COVID-19. Armamos un conjunto de datos a nivel de código del Plan de Mejora Zonal (ZIP) de los Datos Libres de la Ciudad de Nueva York, Departamento de Salud, y del Estudio Comunitario Americano (2014–2018). Empleamos mapas para demostrar la evidencia de patrones espaciales de las tasas de contravenciones detectadas por la policía al uso de los tapabocas y las tasas de muertes relacionadas con el COVID–19. Usando un enfoque bayesiano de análisis espacial para modelar las contravenciones por el uso del tapabocas detectadas por la policía, hallamos una variación considerable entre esas tasas de violación al uso del tapabocas detectadas por la policía y las tasas de mortalidad relacionadas con el COVID–19 a través de la Ciudad de Nueva York, y las semejanzas en su distribución espacial, con las tasas más altas para ambas mediciones halladas en Brooklyn y en el Bronx. La asociación positiva entre las tasas de violación al uso del tapabocas detectadas por la policía y las tasas de mortalidad relacionada con el COVID–19 se mantiene después de incluir otros covariados. El porcentaje de negros no hispánicos, hispánicos y hogares con limitada proficiencia en el inglés están asociados positivamente con las violaciones detectadas por la policía sobre uso del tapabocas. Este estudio amplía la literatura relacionada con el COVID–19 al informar un accionar policial más agresivo sobre las normas aplicadas al uso del tapabocas en las comunidades de minorías étnicas y las que exhiben limitada proficiencia en el uso del idioma inglés.

Key Words:

• COVID-19
• face masking
• New York City
• policing
• spatial analysis

关键词:

• COVID-19
• 戴口罩
• 纽约市
• 执法
• 空间分析。

Palabras clave:

• acción policial
• análisis espacial
• Ciudad de Nueva York
• COVID–19
• tapabocas

Notes

1 The COVID data released by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene do not allow us to truncate the time span to match the 311 calls.

2 The “COVID-essential” occupations include construction and extraction occupations; farming, fishing, and forestry occupations; installation, maintenance, and repair occupations; material moving occupations; production occupations; transportation occupations; office and administrative support occupations; sales and related occupations; building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations; food preparation and serving related occupations; health care support occupations; personal care and service occupations; and protective service occupations.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tse-Chuan Yang

TSE-CHUAN YANG is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at University at Albany, SUNY, Albany, NY 12222. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include spatial demography, mortality, and health disparities. Specifically, his research mainly seeks to understand whether, and if so, how social and built neighborhood environment factors explain the gaps in a range of health outcomes across racial and ethnic, geographic, and socioeconomic dimensions.

Seulki Kim

SEULKI KIM is a PhD Student in the Department of Sociology at University at Albany, SUNY, Albany, NY 12222. E-mail: [email protected]. Her PhD project aims to understand whether and how social structure is associated with the spatial distribution of suicide and alcohol- and drug-induced deaths. Her research interests focus on health disparities and spatial demography.

Stephen A. Matthews

STEPHEN A. MATTHEWS is the Liberal Arts Professor of Sociology, Anthropology, and Demography (courtesy Geography and School of International Affairs) and the Director of the Graduate Program in Demography at the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests focus on the use of spatial concepts, measures, and methods to study population health and spatial inequality.