More Colorado sheriffs say no citations for breaking mask ordinance

TELLER COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- Teller County may be the second domino in a chain of county sheriffs in Colorado pushing back against state guidelines.

Sheriff Jason Mikesell announced Friday that his department would not be issuing citations or detaining people for violating a statewide mask mandate. This comes a day after the El Paso County Sheriff's Office announced that it wouldn't be issuing citations for violating the mask order.

"Right now we're unable to enforce it, nor would we enforce it," he explained in a sit-down interview Friday afternoon.

Elbert County Sheriff Timothy Norton, the Washington County Sheriff's Office, and the Weld County Sheriff's Office also said they wouldn't be issuing citations for breaking the mask ordinance.

It's an announcement that sounds familiar to those who followed the state's Extreme Risk Protection Orders law, otherwise known as the Red Flag Law. When the state legislature introduced and passed the law, many Republican county sheriffs signed off on "Second Amendment Sanctuary" resolutions, vowing not to use county resources to enforce the law.

Sheriff Mikesell insisits, they are not the same.

"Big difference. Red flag was a big difference to what you're talking about during an emergency operation," he said, "this has a lot of the same elements but that had gone through a legislative body, right? This hasn't gone through anything. This is an order, directed by a very small group to deal with one type of issue."

Gov. Jared Polis announced the statewide mask mandate for all indoor public spaces on Thursday, and he said that business owners can call local law enforcement for trespassing if people without masks refuse to leave. Read more on the mandate here.

EPCSO and TCSO did say they'll focus on educating others to comply with the mandate for health reasons, so there will be some enforcement to an extent. However, it remains to be seen how often deputies will be called to a scene to provide education about the effectiveness of masks.

""Right now, how would we even charge somebody? We don't write a summons for something that's civil," Mikesell explained.

Both of the departments cited their relationships with the community and signaled that they don't want to risk creating animosity by issuing citations.

We're checking with other local sheriff's offices to see how they're planning on enforcing the new public health order.