Do Not Knock Registry Considered In Avon Lake

AVON LAKE, OH — Avon Lake is considering creation of a Do Not Knock registry to deter door-to-door solicitation of residents.

City Council President Martin O'Donnell told Patch he has received numerous complaints from residents about aggressive solicitors using high-pressure sales tactics and refusing to leave residents' property. O'Donnell believes a Do Not Knock registry, with biting penalties for offenders, could ease the problem.

"We have seniors and moms at home with their kids and sometimes the solicitors don’t want to leave," O'Donnell said. "Good people sometimes don’t want to say no. This is a way to help them."

The Do Not Knock registry would provide residents with stickers to place in their windows indicating solicitors should not canvass there. There would also be a physical list of Do Not Knock addresses provided to solicitors.

If a solicitor ignored the Do Not Knock registry and continued to harass a resident, police could charge that person with trespassing, O'Donnell said. It's more likely, he noted, the solicitor would simply be escorted off the property.

Many of Avon Lake's neighboring communities have their own Do Not Knock registries, including Bay Village, Avon, and North Olmsted. Avon Lake's legislation would incorporate much of the same verbiage as those cities.

The legislation supporting Avon Lake's Do Not Knock registry was initially passed out of the Safety Committee and brought to City Council on Dec. 3. O'Donnell said the bill has been sent back to committee while language about nonprofits and elected officials is adjusted.

Neither nonprofits or elected officials will be barred from going door-to-door by this legislation.

The council president expects to re-introduce the Do Not Knock ordinance to council in January, where it will receive three readings and hopefully be passed before the end of the month, O'Donnell said.

If that timeline were followed, the registry would target February to begin operations. The city would need time to purchase stickers and compile the addresses.

To be added to the Do Not Knock registry, residents would simply head to Avon Lake City Hall and fill out a form placing their address on the registry.

O'Donnell said many of his colleagues on council have heard similar complaints about aggressive solicitors and he believes the legislation will pass at the beginning of 2019.

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