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I just had another one today. Knocking on door, no permit visible. I was getting ready for work so I didn't bother answering the door. The guy just turned and walked down the street to the next house. A quick call to my local PD and I was out the door heading to work. As I was pulling away, saw the officer pulling into the hood, so hopefully he found the guy.

I still say to people who tell me I'm wasting the PD's time the following.

City police enforce city ordinances. The person doesn't have a permit, which means that the PD doesn't know the person and a background check hasn't been done. It allows the PD to make contact with the person and run them for warrants and also to inform them of the ordinance. If that person then goes and gets a permit, that generates revenue for the city and will stop him from coming back to my house (since part of the permit is learning that they can't knock on doors that are posted no soliciting). If the person doesn't get a permit but is caught again, then they will be cited, again generating revenue for the city. It also gets a marked police car in the neighborhood, detering any other criminals who may be about.

My neighborhood during the day has many empty houses as most are at work. The people left are elderly, retired or stay at home moms. The daytime is when most burglaries occur, so it doesn't hurt to have the police cruising the neighborhood.

After explaining all this, most people realize that it indeed is good practice.

ah yes, the old vacuum sales guy...reminds me of this joke I heard....

A little old lady answered a knock on the door one day, only to be confronted by a well-dressed young man carrying a vacuum cleaner.

"Good morning," said the young man. "If I could take a couple minutes of your time, I would like to demonstrate the very latest in high-powered vacuum cleaners."

"Get Lost!" said the old lady. "I haven't got any money" and she tried to close the door. Quick as a flash, the young man wedged his foot in the door and pushed it wide open.

"Don't be too hasty!" he said. "Not until you have at least seen my demonstration." And with that, he emptied a bucket of horse manure all over her hallway carpet. "If this vacuum cleaner does not remove all traces of this horse manure from your carpet, Madam, I will personally eat the remainder."

"Well," she said, "I hope you've got a really good appetite, because the electricity was cut off this morning."

I do not like solicitors and myself and my neighbors always call the police when one comes into the neighborhood without a permit visable.

Our city has an ordinace requiring permits. Here is my city's rules on it. http://www.nrhtx.com/DocumentView.aspx?DID=255

My city forbids people from either knocking or leaving hand bills if the home is posted "no soliciting" The people who actually get a permit know this and when they walk up to the door and see the sign, they turn around and go to the next house.

Like has been mentioned before, many are not there for the purpose they say. I had one guy get real pushy with me when I asked him to see his permit. He kept talking over me and trying to push his magazine or whatever it was. I finally told him to get off my property. He still didn't move. I told him one more time to get off my property or I would be calling the police. He finally turned to walk away..he said to me "I hope Satan blesses you". He walked down the street and kept glaring at me. I went ahead and called the police anyways and they made contact with him. I was sitting in the garage with my wife when he came walking back past the house after talking with the police down the street. He grabbed his crotch and made jestures towards my wife. I stepped out of the garage into my driveway and he walked away again cussing and flipping me off. The officer drove up to my house and asked if the guy did what he thought he saw him do...I said yes. The officer said ok, we'll be back, then took off after him again. They came back 30 mins later and said that the guy was warned to not solicit without a permit and that he warned that he would be cited with disorderly conduct if he acted up again.

The police have told me that they keep a list of all persons warned for soliciting and that they only get 1 warning. After that they get citations.

The door hangers are also annoying, I hate the litter on my front door. With that, if I see the people actually doing it, I'll call the police and they come out to either warn or cite the person doing it. If I don't see them, I call the city secretary and they call the companies doing it and warn and or cite them.

We have some crime in our neighborhood, and we try to do what we can to look out for each other. It may seem minor compared to burglaries, robberies, rapes, murders, etc...but many of these folks are crooks, so any chance to get them ID'd and run for warrants is a good thing. Citations bring in revenue for the city as do permit fees...(keeps property taxes lower)

It's a quality of life issue and I'm glad that my city takes is seriously.