Police got away with no masks at SC airport because county feared officers wouldn’t work
Editor’s note: This is part one of a three-part series. Read part two, about complaints from people who visited the airport, and part three, about how the Horry County Police Department claimed it was exempt from the mask rule even though it wasn’t.
Horry County Police officers working at Myrtle Beach International Airport — the very people responsible for upholding the rule of law — rarely wore face masks, despite federal law requiring them to do so, during dozens of visits made by reporters to the airport from June 2021 to January of this year.
Now, emails from county officials obtained through South Carolina’s Freedom of Information Act show why the Horry County Police Department refused to require its officers to wear masks at the airport — and how they got away with it.
The only day every police officer working inside the airport was observed wearing a mask was when half a dozen reporters, all of them with cameras, visited MYR in October for a pre-scheduled visit by members of the media. The day before, Horry police officers were observed not wearing masks.
When asked during the media visit if there was a new mask policy for police officers, Horry County spokeswoman Kelly Moore said, “Nothing has changed.”
Horry County Police, through Moore, repeatedly refused to explain why officers at the airport were not wearing masks, instead insisting officers were following the rules in accordance with CDC guidance.
Emails from June, July and August showed the Horry County Police feared losing crucial staff — officers working overtime — when the airport was especially busy. To deal with this, the airport, county officials and the police department crafted a series of evolving explanations — none of which were ever offered when questioned by The Sun News — for why they believed officers didn’t have to follow the federal mask rule.
The emails and The Sun News’ reporting revealed:
The primary fear was that officers would refuse to work overtime, crucial support needed during busy periods, at the airport if they were forced to wear masks.
The Horry County police chief at one point dismissed the issue, saying, “No one will care.”
People in the public took note and complained to the news media and the airport, with no change. Even the local business community, through the Chamber of Commerce, implored the airport and police department to set a good example by wearing masks at the airport.
At the end of January, after continued reporting by The Sun News, the Transportation Security Administration hit MYR with its hardest crackdown yet: The airport was warned it could be fined if it did not enforce the mask requirement among passengers and employees, including police officers.
Throughout the summer, the police department repeatedly skirted the fact that it was not following federal law and denied accountability, often saying that it was following all applicable CDC rules, even when that wasn’t the full truth.
The why was relatively simple: At any time, up to 25% of police officers working at the airport were doing so voluntarily as overtime. If they were forced to wear masks, the department feared they would simply refuse to work the overtime, leaving the airport understaffed, emails showed.
“My fear is going to be the lack of manpower as folks will not sign up for the OT as there is easier OT available,” Horry County Police Lt. TJ Mueller said in an email to Hill on Aug. 17. “We are averaging 5 officers on OT each busy day and we all know that the mask mandate will get extended once it expires, and (MYR) is thinking we are going to have at least a few more months of busy flights (I pray that is wrong info). I say all that to say it is going to be impossible to fill all of that OT if masks are required by our PD.”
Understaffing was one problem, but solving it by ditching the mask mandate created another.
How could TSA, or the airport in general, expect everyday passengers to follow the general mask requirement if major examples of authority — police officers — refused to do so themselves? Over time, fewer and fewer passengers appeared to wear masks inside the airport.
“We serve in a position of authority wear (sic) it is easier to ask for compliance when we emulate what we are asking,” David McMahon, TSA’s federal security director for South Carolina, said in an email on Aug. 17 to Mueller.
Travelers took note, too, though their concerns went unheeded.
“Upon entering the terminal with my mask on, I noticed the Police Information Kiosk. Sitting there were two uniformed police officer(s) who were not wearing a mask. Can you please explain to me why these enforcers of the law were not wearing the required mask?” Maribeth Orehovec of Pawleys Island wrote in a complaint to the airport. “It is such a poor example for those travelers that question the mask mandate. I am also witnessing airport employees not wearing masks. I am a 100% supporter of masks and vaccines.”
When mask mandates started
As a wave of COVID-19 cases spread through the U.S. last winter, the CDC instituted the rule requiring anyone on public transit, including indoor public transit hubs such as airports, to wear a mask.
The reasoning was that public transit brings dozens to thousands of people from different households into the same space. Public transit created a prime space for COVID to spread far worse than in many other places. At a time when vaccine availability was still fairly limited, mask wearing was the best way to avoid spreading or being infected with the virus.
The CDC’s mask requirement has been extended several times and currently lasts until mid-March. On Jan. 19, the federal government also announced it will make 400 million N95 masks — the highest quality available — free for anyone to pick up at local pharmacies and community health centers.
The move comes as the new omicron COVID variant has blasted past initial vaccine protection. The existing vaccines still provide strong defense protecting those who are immunized from serious illness, but new data is showing they are not as good at protecting vaccinated individuals from being infected at all. Masks, especially N95s, serve as a powerful secondary barrier against infection.
When the CDC’s mask rule began on Feb. 2, 2021, the Myrtle Beach airport embraced it — but not all passengers did.
“We (TSA) and FAA have seen an uptick in flight diversions regarding passengers unwilling to wear their mask while in flight- as you know these flight diversions are costly and have a ripple effect,” McMahon said in an email to airport officials on Feb. 1.
“TSA does have enforcement powers but my hope is to resolve all matters at the lowest level and ultimately with compliance,” he continued.
Refusal to wear a mask inside the airport or on a plane can result in up to a $1,000 fine from TSA on the first violation and up to $3,000 for repeated violations. TSA said it has only had a “handful” of mask compliance incidents at MYR but noted they were early on in the pandemic. No civil penalties were issued because the passengers either put on masks or left the airport.
In April of 2021, signage about the mask requirement was ubiquitous: at entrances and exits, near check-in, by baggage claim and along the line for security. TSA said it asked airports to “assist us with communication of the mask mandate,” but it was not a requirement outside of security checkpoints.
After a few months, though, that signage was gone. Removed from the doors and check-in areas. Now, the only signs reminding customers to put on a mask inside the airport that can be easily found are located in the core of the security checkpoint line, which is directly controlled by TSA.
“If a passenger comes to the security checkpoint without a facemask, they will be offered one,” TSA spokesman Mark Howell said in a statement. “If they refuse to wear it, they will not be permitted into the checkpoint area for screening.
How police got around the mask rule
In the fall of 2020, Horry County was one of the first local jurisdictions to ditch its mask requirement for indoor spaces, including publicly owned spaces and private businesses. Several cities, including North Myrtle Beach and Myrtle Beach, kept their mask mandates until the spring of 2021. South Carolina never had a statewide mask mandate.
The county ending its mask requirement, along with the lack of a state-level requirement, were part of the police department’s initial argument, revealed in emails, for why it wouldn’t enforce the mask requirement at the airport and why it wouldn’t require officers to wear masks.
But, as The Sun News pressed the county on what, exactly, the department was using to justify its decision to skirt federal law, its reasoning evolved.
Written in the CDC and TSA mask requirement for airports and planes, there is a narrow exception that the Horry County Police Department latched onto. The CDC allowed people whose “workplace health, safety or job duty” would be put at risk by wearing a mask to be exempt.
In other words, Horry County Police argued that the health of its officers would be endangered — and that they could not do their jobs — if they were forced to wear masks at the airport.
It was never made clear how wearing a face mask in the airport would prevent police officers from doing their jobs or why they were unable to wear masks in 2021 after doing so for much of 2020.
In emails, Mueller didn’t give specific details when he explained to McMahon why mask wearing would get in the way, but he did say it would make it harder for officers to do their jobs.
“Given our job description the wearing of the mask in this area causes a significant safety risk to our officers and greatly reduces that ability of them to do their jobs which as you know is protecting the traveling public and airport infrastructure,” Mueller said in an email to McMahon on Aug. 17.
McMahon, the TSA director for South Carolina, told the department it would grant this exemption; all it had to do was submit a formal request.
That request never happened. Horry County Police never submitted a formal request for an exemption from the mask mandate, according to TSA.
“No exception to the mask mandate was authorized,” the TSA said in a statement.
To make life easier for Myrtle Beach officers, McMahon sent new microfiber masks to the police department, which he hoped would be more comfortable for officers to wear and help officers who also wear glasses, as the new masks reduced the chance of their glasses getting foggy.
As for the TSA, the agency requires its own officers to wear a face mask and gloves, and officers also sometimes wear eye protection or clear plastic face shields, as well, the TSA said in a statement. The officers also “change their gloves following each pat-down and upon passenger request.”
McMahon said Myrtle Beach International was the only airport he, or anyone else he spoke with at the TSA, knew of that had issues complying with the mask rule.
Police Lt. Mueller disagreed. In an email on Aug. 17, he mentioned that Horry County Police Chief Joseph Hill had spoken to Charleston International Airport, which he said also had officers not wearing masks.
“We are not the only agency not wearing masks in airports, we are just the only ones trying to do it the right way,” Mueller said in the email. “I know that you said you spoke to Charleston and that they are required to wear them which they are but their work around is they all carry water bottles with them. This gives them the out to not wear them per the drinking or eating exemption.”
When contacted for this story, Charleston International Airport spokesman Spencer Pryor said Mueller’s characterization was false. Officers at Charleston’s airport, Pryor said, always wore their masks in accordance with the TSA and CDC rule. And, he said, they had not sought to try to get an exemption from the rule.
“That is totally inaccurate,” Pryor said. “The officers, the employees and the guests are all required to abide by the TSA mandate, and our officers do wear masks. They are all masked when they are working inside of the terminal.”
TSA leadership said in a statement that they have no concerns with compliance of the mask mandate at Charleston International Airport, including passengers and people working at the airport.
On Horry County’s use of Charleston as an example, Pryor said, “That’s not good putting false information out on the police here at the airport. We will look into it.”
When a reporter for The State newspaper visited Charleston’s airport on Jan. 26, all of the law enforcement officers observed were wearing masks.
Ordered to mask up — with a significant exception
In several emails, Mueller noted that officers at MYR only went maskless when in the wide-open terminal outside of airport security, which he said made it safer to do so. When inside security or close to the checkpoint, the officers did put on masks, Mueller said.
Yet, following correspondence with TSA, police chief Hill said in an email on Aug. 20 that he expected all officers working at the airport to be wearing masks while indoors.
Mueller still countered, requesting permission from Hill that police officers be allowed to not wear a mask if they are in a cordoned off podium on the west side of the terminal near the security checkpoint. The podium isn’t hidden away from public view, though. It’s impossible to go through security without passing it, and TSA’s McMahon said officers not wearing masks makes it harder to enforce the rule and lead by example.
Acknowledging the issue was a “sore subject” with difficult “politics and optics,” Mueller explained that his “goal is to keep our officers in the lobby as much as possible. I know I can make them and will but I prefer to have them want to as folks tend to do a better job that way.”
Hill agreed.
“I firmly believe we are following the spirit of the mandate if we have our masks on, but down while at the podium,” Hill said in an email on Aug. 21. “If a passenger approaches please have them mask up. That’s a very visible post, so this may continue to bite us if we are not careful.”
However, Hill’s assessment of the “spirit of the mandate” ignored what the actual mandate said: Everyone indoor at a public transit hub must be wearing a mask.
On Aug. 12, Mueller asked Hill if it might be best to tell The Sun News that the department was exempt from the mask rule and that he believed that the department had no authority to enforce the mask mandate, but he admitted that might come at a cost.
“I do see the downside of letting them know we can’t enforce the mask mandate as it may invite more people to try to show up without one,” Mueller said in an email.
Police chief: ‘No one will care’
One reason the police department said it failed to move quickly — or at all — to enforce mask wearing among officers was simple: “No one will care,” Hill said in an email.
“Based on my monitoring of social media, no one will care, no one that matters,” Hill told Mueller in an Aug. 7 email.
A few days later, on Aug. 11, The Sun News published its second article on how police officers at the airport were not wearing masks indoors, seemingly violating the federal mandate. Horry County Director of Airports Scott Van Moppes forwarded a copy of the article to Mueller, who dismissed the coverage.
“Seems like the only guy trying to breath life into this is him. All other news folks ... seems to ignore him,” Mueller said in an email the day the article was published, referring to the author of the article.
Yet, community members were already starting to notice problems with mask wearing at the airport.
Dick Temple, who noted that he used to work for the Federal Aviation Administration, first reached out to a local TV station on Aug. 3 to say he was extremely disappointed in the mask enforcement at the airport, according to an email he sent to Hill.
“I was surprised and disappointed to see tonight’s broadcast not mention or investigate why passengers inside the airport terminal were not wearing masks,” Temple said in his email, which was later forwarded to Hill and obtained through The Sun News’ FOIA request. “I would expect the Airport and Security Managers, as well as law enforcement personnel, enforce this mandate. Consequently, when we see something, say something, is in effect in this situation. Hopefully your station’s personnel will follow up on this matter immediately.”
However, after failing to receive a response from the TV station, Temple contacted Hill on Aug. 5.
“For the last few days, Spirit Airlines cancellations have caused an overflow of passengers in the terminal building and yet the news didn’t show one HCPD Officer in their broadcast while half of the passengers were not wearing masks in the terminal building,” he told Hill in an email. “I request your department contact the Airport and Security Managers and remind them to enforce the federal mandate, which is still currently in effect until September 13th.”
Temple’s email didn’t lead to any change.
Hurting Myrtle Beach’s reputation?
On Aug. 11, four days after the police chief told his subordinates that “no one will care” about police officers not wearing masks, Van Moppes got an email from one entity that cared a lot — the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.
“Hi Scott: I think this is a serious issue; along with the cancelations last week it is hurting the fine reputation you have all worked so hard to build,” Chamber CEO Karen Riordan told Moppes in an email. “We are getting complaints that the airport experience is unpleasant and ‘ruining their vacation’ which needs to be proactively managed so people don’t badmouth the destination on social media (it’s happening already) and or become detractors not willing to come back and recommending against us.”
Riordan, in her email, was referencing the wave of flight cancellations by Spirit Airlines in late July and early August that left hundreds of people stranded in Myrtle Beach.
The chamber was right that the mask-wearing problem was irritating some visitors. MYR received complaints about people inside the airport not wearing masks as early as March according to airport documents, nearly four months before The Sun News first reported that dozens of people, including police officers, were observed on a daily basis not wearing masks while inside the airport.
On March 7, 2021, MaryEllen StoneHill of Pennsylvania tweeted photos of maskless people at the airport, calling the mask requirement “bulls***” since it wasn’t being enforced.
“More maskless wonders. This is ridiculous,” she wrote in a follow-up tweet with more photos.
At least 17 people also filed complaints with the airport about the lack of mask-wearing at the airport. Frequently, complainants said the conditions made them feel unsafe while visiting MYR.
One passenger wondered whether it might be safer to fly through Charleston instead. Several people said the airport should be “disgusted” or “disappointed” by its employees’ disregard for the federal mask mandate. “How absolutely barbaric of you all,” Lee Rottinghaus of Indiana said in a complaint to the airport.
Another passenger, Joe Chebowski of Maryland, noted that if the airport wasn’t going to enforce mask wearing, then it should “remove the signs and website notices that say masks are required.”
In Riordan’s mind, now was the time to act, before the issue got out of hand.
“A proactive offense is better than playing defense with these negative stories,” she said in an email on Aug. 11.
“Let’s coordinate messaging and we need to get HCPD on board... not sure what’s up but Chief Hill needs to know this looks really bad for his guys,” she said in a follow-up email later that day.
Protecting county officials from COVID — but not airport visitors
When asked to comment for this story, Moore, the Horry County spokeswoman, did not answer any of the new questions brought to her about the police department’s decisions and actions regarding face masks.
Moore also did not answer questions about why signs reminding passengers to wear masks were removed from the airport, why the police department shared false information about Charleston International Airport, what health risk mask wearing might pose and how wearing masks got in the way of police securing public safety,
Instead, she provided a statement similar to one she has given several other times, stating that the police department is in compliance with the CDC and TSA.
“Horry County Government, our team at MYR, and our law enforcement officers remain committed to providing a safe, secure, and predictable traveling experience. We have been, and continue to, work closely together with regional and federal agencies—we appreciate their hard work and partnership,” Moore said in an email.
Though the police department spent the last seven months ignoring the federal mask requirement and saying it wasn’t under an obligation to comply, last week, firm enforcement finally arrived.
After a reporter questioned TSA about the police department’s actions and deliberations, the agency contacted MYR and handed down a stern reminder:
The airport itself was at risk of TSA proceeding with civil enforcement of the mandate, which could include thousands of dollars in fines, if it did not enforce the mask requirement among passengers and employees, including police officers.
On Thursday, a reporter visited the airport and, for the first time since that media visit in October, observed all uniformed police officers wearing masks covering both their nose and mouth. However, at least a dozen other people working at the airport were maskless, including those working at an information desk, and plenty of passengers walked through the airport maskless as well.
In February, the federal mask mandate will have been in place for a year.
On Jan. 10, as the omicron variant created a new wave of COVID-19 cases, Horry County took steps to protect itself by discouraging those with symptoms from visiting some government buildings, shutting down public access to at least one building and requiring appointments before arrival at others. The county also repeatedly encouraged visitors to do their business online whenever possible.
The strength of the county’s latest efforts to stop a deadly virus just didn’t extend to Myrtle Beach International Airport and the millions of people who pass through it every year.
This story was originally published January 31, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Police got away with no masks at SC airport because county feared officers wouldn’t work."
