Masked individuals were still seen on the streets of Nottingham on Tuesday, the first day of a new "balaclava ban" designed to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour linked to face coverings. Nottingham is the first major UK city to introduce the measure, which lets police and council officers demand people remove face coverings when identity concealment is suspected to relate to criminal or anti-social conduct. While shoppers welcomed the crackdown, several openly voiced doubts about enforcement, citing a lack of visible police presence in the city centre.

Under the new rules, offenders face £70 on-the-spot fines, confiscation of the covering, and referral to community work such as litter picking, with repeat offenders risking a criminal behaviour order that could bar them from the city centre indefinitely. Despite this, the Daily Mail observed cyclists and a food delivery driver wearing balaclavas on the ban's first day, and noted that only police officers and Community Protection Officers, not safer city partnership officers who were also patrolling, have powers to enforce it. Residents including David Rhodes, who was hit by a masked cyclist, and shop owners Hannah and Dan Byrne, whose wool shop was raided by balaclava-clad teenagers, backed the ban but questioned whether stretched police resources could make it effective.