Rialto City Council Bans After Dark Door-To-Door Soliciting Citywide

(November 27)  RIALTO–The Rialto City Council this week outlawed solicitation between the hours of 7 p.m. and 9 a.m.
An uptick in the amount of door-to-door sales activity in the city during evening hours prompted the council to adjust that portion of its city code relating to soliciting, canvassing or peddling in its residential, commercial and industrial zones.
Such activity has gone on virtually unchecked, at whatever hour of the day. Technically, itinerant salesmen working in Rialto are supposed to have either a solicitor’s license or business license. They are further required to carry identification which is to be visible upon their approach or produced upon request.
According to a city report that accompanied the material relating to the code change presented to the city council, it is believed that residential burglars have adopted the tactic of simulating salesmen as they case neighborhoods, seeking to find residences where no one is present.
The police department has reported an upswing in the number of calls relating to suspicious or illegal activity by sales people or solicitors working the city’s residential neighborhoods, with at least 82 calls having come in to the city’s dispatch center to report such activity.
The new ordinance further requires solicitors and peddlers to carry photo identification.
Door-to-door prosthelytizers, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormon missionaries are not restricted by the ordinance.

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