CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – A proposal from City Councilperson Brian Zacharias would allow for the creation of a no-solicitation database in Clarksville, but the measure has met resistance over whether it would be feasible to enforce.
The Finance Committee voted in disapproval of the ordinance on Monday due to concerns about stretching the Police Department’s resources for low-priority crimes.
Zacharias said there was near-universal support for a no-solicitation database. He referenced the “No-Knock Registry” in Goodlettsville, which can be used as a template. There would be no additional costs from an IT standpoint. He added that addresses would be automatically removed from the database after two years.
But Councilperson Stacey Streetman said a database could be detrimental due to the high level of address changes in the city. She mentioned that the police are already overburdened and couldn’t address such an increase in low-priority crimes.
Zacharias said, “I don’t think the excuse that ‘nobody’s going to follow the law’ is a good reason to not implement some sort of change.” He said a home is something that’s important to people, and that Clarksvillians shouldn’t have to deface their homes with signs just to be left alone. He also said such signs don’t always deter peddlers.
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At the City Council meeting on Thursday, Police Chief David Crockarell was asked his opinion on the matter. He opposed the database for several reasons. For one thing, civilians would sign up without once receiving a solicitor, adding thousands of addresses to the database. This is concerning because the department responds to about 150,000 incidents a year and is already 100 officers short of the number it should have for its size.
“This is a good idea, but we only receive about 85 on average calls a year for solicitors,” Crockarell said. “Out of 150,000 calls a year that is not, at this moment, a burden for our office. I think it’s managing and dealing with it after the fact is troublesome.”
He said that, in most cases, solicitors have a permit and are from out of state, making them harder to track. Additionally, he doesn’t trust that residents would remove their addresses from the database when they move, which could cause legal trouble in preventing peddlers from legally soliciting.
Furthermore, since an official database has more legal weight than a yard sign, these cases would change from civil disputes to potentially criminal cases. This could require investigations similar to that of a burglary case. These investigations would be costly, and the only consequence would be a $50 fine for the individual (not the company that hired them).
Zacharias said his ordinance would only give the city the ability to create it. If it turned out to be infeasible or detrimental, the database could be scrapped. If solicitation calls increase, a similar ordinance could be considered in the future.
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