For years you've fought valiantly against the ad industry on every conceivable battlefield. You wrote to the catalog companies and demanded that they take you off their mailing lists. You had your phone number delisted, and then joined the National Do Not Call Registry. Your e-mail program filters out spam before it even reaches your inbox. You installed a pop-up blocker on your Web browser, and you periodically erase your browser's cookies just to thwart all those sites that track your browsing habits. You even bought a TiVo that lets you, with the touch of a button, glide across the three-minute bursts of advertising that dilute your favorite shows. You thought you'd finally won.
But the marketers have one last hope. Even if you've cut yourself off from advertising in most other forms, they know where you live and can still reach you on foot. The Associated Press reported in 2003 that door-to-door selling is on the rise, partially in response to regulations like the National Do Not Call Registry.
How Do-Not-Knock Registries Work
Fortunately, a handful of municipalities have decided to fight back by establishing do-not-knock registries. One of the first of these was created in Parma, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. Parma's program has become a model for other communities across the country – or, at the very least, across the Cleveland metro area.
The City of Parma's Web site allows residents to sign up for the registry, adding their names to a database that all peddlers or solicitors must consult before going door-to-door. Joining the Do-Not-Knock Registry also gets you a window decal that reminds peddlers and solicitors that you're not interested. If they knock anyway, you can call the police; violators of the ordinance are guilty of a fourth degree misdemeanor, subject to a fine of $250 or 30 days in jail on the first offense. The Do-Not-Knock Registry only covers people asking for money, however, so Parma residents will still have to handle the occasional Jehovah's Witness, Mormon or other person representing a non-profit group.
Clearly the do-not-knock movement is just taking off. But if you're annoyed by solicitors in your own city, there are steps you can take to help a registry form in your area. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper; call the office of the mayor; or bring it up at a public meeting of the town council. With a little persistence, you can help put solicitors and peddlers in their place.
The City of Parma's Web site allows residents to sign up for the registry, adding their names to a database that all peddlers or solicitors must consult before going door-to-door. Joining the Do-Not-Knock Registry also gets you a window decal that reminds peddlers and solicitors that you're not interested. If they knock anyway, you can call the police; violators of the ordinance are guilty of a fourth degree misdemeanor, subject to a fine of $250 or 30 days in jail on the first offense. The Do-Not-Knock Registry only covers people asking for money, however, so Parma residents will still have to handle the occasional Jehovah's Witness, Mormon or other person representing a non-profit group.
The Growing Do Not Knock Movement
Other communities with do-not-knock registries include North Olmstead, Ohio; Claremont, Calif.; Rockville Centre, N.Y., and the New Jersey cities of Woodbridge Township, Ridgewood and Milltown.Clearly the do-not-knock movement is just taking off. But if you're annoyed by solicitors in your own city, there are steps you can take to help a registry form in your area. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper; call the office of the mayor; or bring it up at a public meeting of the town council. With a little persistence, you can help put solicitors and peddlers in their place.
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