Peddlers are free to knock on doors till 8

Autumn means darkness is now falling before 8 p.m., the time when door-to-door salespeople have to stop ringing doorbells in Columbus.

The door-to-door curfew used to be 6 p.m., but the Columbus City Council extended the hours in February.

That doesn’t make Skip Kniley happy.

“It’s like a quality-of-life issue. It’s also a safety issue,” said Kniley, 67, who lives on the Northwest Side, near the Scioto River. “People are walking around the neighborhood that don’t belong here.”

Emmanuel Remy, who leads the Northland Community Council, said many residents in the area don’t like the idea that peddlers have an additional two hours to knock on their doors.

“When you’ve got retirees and that sort of thing, it’s somewhat scary for them,” Remy said.

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Columbus officials say they changed the hours after a federal appeals court in Cincinnati ruled in 2012 that a Dayton suburb violated the First and 14th Amendments to the Constitution by placing a 6 p.m. curfew on canvassers going door-to-door.

Columbus’ 8 p.m. curfew applies only to commercial solicitors, said Assistant City Attorney Josh Cox. He said commercial activity still has some First Amendment protection, and city officials felt that, to be safe, they should move the curfew back two hours.

He said it doesn’t apply to nonprofit groups raising money, such as school boosters, or religious groups and political groups collecting signatures. They can ring your doorbell at any hour, although that is not the case in some other cities.

Ohio Citizen Action sued the Dayton suburb of Englewood after officials told the grass-roots anti-pollution group that it could not collect signatures on issues after 6 p.m.

“Our time frame has always been 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.,” said Rachael Belz, Citizen Action’s executive director.

Citizen Action wants to reach people after work, said Daniel T. Kobil, the group’s attorney.

Englewood’s 6 p.m. curfew “gutted the ability to talk to people,” violating their freespeech rights, he said.

Cox said Columbus wanted to avoid being sued. “Then you run into the same issue that Englewood did trying to justify 6 o’clock rather than 8 o’clock,” he said.

Now, canvassers in Englewood can go until 9 p.m., although the curfew there for door-to-door salespeople remains 6 p.m.

Other cities have changed their hours. Centerville in southwestern Ohio now allows canvassing until 9 p.m., but salespeople have to stop at sunset. In the Cleveland suburb of Bay Village, canvassers can go until 9 p.m., but the curfew for salespeople is 7 p.m., and no one is allowed to go door-to-door on Sunday.

Cox said he is unaware of anyone being prosecuted for violating the curfew in Columbus. Doing so is a fourthdegree misdemeanor, punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $250 fine.

Jennifer Chamberlain, who leads the Far East Area Commission, said people representing themselves as Kirby vacuum salespeople violated the curfew this summer, visiting some neighborhoods as late as 10 p.m.

“You have an individual come to the door, you do not know who that is,” she said.

The city has no record of issuing commercial sales licenses for Kirby salespeople, said Thom Ibinson.

In an email, Kirby spokesman Rob Lacivita wrote: “We are disappointed to learn of the assertion that independent Kirby dealers may have operated beyond the hours established by the city of Columbus.” He wrote that Kirby will look into it.

Cox said residents should place “no soliciting” signs on their doors if they don’t want to be bothered.

But Robert Dickerscheid, who leads a block watch on the South Side, said, “I think it is ridiculous that people need to worry about people on their doorstep on their property after dark.”

Susan Halpern of Hungarian Village on the South Side said the “no soliciting” sign on her door doesn’t stop some salespeople.

Then again, “No one forces you to open your door,” Halpern said.