Retailers who encounter customers who flout the face mask requirement in D.C. should call police, Mayor Muriel Bowser said Wednesday. 

Bowser extended an order last week requiring people to wear face coverings in most public settings. It also mandates that businesses post signs prohibiting people from entering unless they wear a mask. But national retailers, including Lowe’s, have said in recent days they will not ask workers to put themselves in potential danger by confronting mask-less shoppers.  

“They should call the police and the police will enforce it,” Bowser said during a news conference, after a reporter asked what businesses in the District should do if shoppers refuse to wear a mask.

People who violate the city’s mask mandate could be fined up to $1,000 and could face prosecution in D.C. Superior Court, according to the order.

The recommendation from Bowser comes as community members and activists have struggled to get D.C. police to wear masks, including during protests supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. Nassim Moshiree, the policy director of the D.C. chapter of the ACLU, asked Bowser and Police Chief Peter Newsham  earlier this month to mandate that officers wear face masks.

“It is alarming to see Metropolitan Police Department officers, as front-line government workers, not adhering to public health guidance on the use of personal protective equipment,” Moshiree said earlier this month. 

Protests against police brutality have also led to increased scrutiny of citizen calls to the police, and the violence that sometimes follows.

Bowser also urged community groups and advisory neighborhood commissioners, who advise D.C. government, to encourage social distancing as the region grapples with rising coronavirus cases. The city is in Phase 2 of reopening, which prohibits mass gatherings of more than 50 people. 

Earlier this week, the city imposed a 14-day self-quarantine requirement for people traveling to Washington from states deemed “high-risk” by health department officials. States are considered high-risk if they record 10 or more new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people each day.