TRESPASS PROGRAM
Business, apartment owners invited to join voluntary initiative
Businesses, multi-family properties and homeowners associations can sign up for the Longmont Police Department’s Trespass Program, which helps police remove unauthorized individuals from private property.
The voluntary program allows Longmont police to act as an agent on behalf of a property owner or management company, thus providing officers with an additional tool to combat trespassing.
“Without any kind of trespass affidavit on file, we would have to try to get a hold of somebody who represented the property,” Master Police Officer David Kennedy said. “It’s very difficult oftentimes to get anybody to pick up the phone of course … at 3 in the morning.”
Whether it be juveniles swimming in an apartment complex’s pool after hours or people hanging out in privately owned vacant lots, Longmont police regularly respond to trespassing complaints throughout the city.
“Trespassing is a pretty frequent call for service,” Kennedy said. “Pretty much daily we’re going to be responding to a few trespassing complaints throughout the community.”
While officers can and do tell people who are not permitted to be on private property to leave, things get tricky when a business owner or a multi-family property manager cannot be reached to verify whether or not someone is in fact trespassing.
“It takes a lot more work for the officer … especially if it’s an unusual time of day where people tend not to be awake,” Kennedy said.
Similarly, when people trespass on a vacant lot that is not clearly marked as private property and is owned by an outof-state company, enforcement can be particularly challenging if the lot’s owner does not have a trespass affidavit on file with the Longmont Public Department.
To enroll in the Trespass Program, a business owner or multi-family property manager must complete a trespass affidavit, which is available on the city’s website, and return it to the Longmont Police Department, 225 Kimbark St.
An affidavit must be notarized and the property in question must have “no trespassing” signs posted.
The affidavit states that if the property is a business, trespassing would include, “sleeping, camping, lying down or being on any portion of the property including stairwells, alcoves, roofs, patios, ledges, hallways, or within doorways: and would also include obstructing the entrance or egress to the business during regular business hours.”
Longmont Public Safety Spokesperson Robin Ericson wrote in an email that there are more than 445 trespass affidavits on file. However, it isn’t clear exactly when the Trespass Program started. Ericson, though, said it had been in place for well over 10 years.