At our last council meeting I asked the City Manager, Jim Hardy and Police Chief, Randy Sonnenberg to bring back a report on door to door solicitors in our city.
For the last few months our neighborhood has been saturated with these door to door solicitors. I am not talking about the Girl Scouts or the elementary student selling cookies and magazine subscriptions, I am talking about these groups that are coming from out of our area and being dumped in our neighborhoods. The last few weeks, several times at between 7:30 pm and 8:00 pm my doorbell has rung and there is a young adult claiming he is from a nearby high school. When I ask what high school they don?t know. These students look to be mid-twenties.
I have found out that several cities are having the same problem. These people are hired and trained to be aggressive and never reveal whom they work for. They are ringing doorbells as late as 10:00 PM. When I ask if they have a permit in our city to solicit they say no and run to the waiting van. I watched as the twelve-passenger van goes down the street and picks up 8-10 of these solicitors. Some door to door sales, like the Girl Scouts, are protected under our constitution, but these groups are not.
The salesmen who have been in our neighborhood need a permit from our police department but never apply for one. They hit an area for a few minutes then race to another part of town and then leave before getting picked up by the police. When you tell them you are not interested they start getting more and more aggressive. I for one would like to stop these illegal practices and late evening interruptions.
I feel that telemarketing is very irritating to me, but these door to door solicitors are even more irritating. We are finding ways to get away from the telemarketers so they are coming to our door now.
At the February 3rd Council meeting, we are getting all the information about what is allowed and what is not. I am going to push for the most stringent rules I can to stop this in our city. Please call our police department to verify anyone that comes to your door soliciting. Most of these require permits.
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