[Vision2020] 2010 Census

[Ron Force]

Google "census takers trespass" for an eyefull-there's some real nutters out there. I'd think twice about signing up to be a "gum'ent snooper".
The Boundary County Commissioners discussed this, here's their minutes:


Commissioners 
discussed census 
takers and the issue of trespassing. Boundary County has received one 
complaint 
on the issue of census takers and trespassing. Attorney Robinson said 
Bonner 
County has had numerous complaints on this topic. Bonner County's 
Sheriff and 
Board of Commissioners initially said if the property owners had "no 
trespassing" signs, the Sheriff could have had those visitors cited and 
Attorney 
Robinson said you can't do that as there is a federal statute that 
people shall 
cooperate with census workers. The Census Act doesn't say that people 
have the 
right to trespass. Attorney Robinson said he conducted some research and there 
are two cases in Idaho and he sent the information to Prosecutor Jack 
Douglas. 
Attorney Robinson said there is no trespass even if there is a "no 
trespassing" 
sign when you approach a person's place, whether it is a respectful 
visitor or 
someone with other legitimate purposes. These are legitimate approaches 
by such 
people as mail carriers, newspapers carriers, census workers, utility 
workers, 
and neighbors or friends. If someone comes to the driveway of a house 
just as a 
friend would, by law that is not a trespass. Attorney Robinson said he 
has heard 
stories of people jumping over fences, checking out outbuildings, etc. 
Commissioner Dinning questioned if a census taker comes to his house and knocks 
on his door and he tells them to go away yet they continue to stay, is 
that a 
violation. It was said that people are getting upset about the census 
GIS 
workers. It was said that these workers are pre-census workers. Attorney Robinson said if someone says to go away they may be violating the 
federal 
statute as it says you will cooperate. Attorney Robinson informed Chief 
Deputy 
Prosecutor Sarah Jane Hallock that he sent Prosecutor Douglas some Idaho cases. 
Attorney Robinson relayed the case numbers to her. Attorney Robinson 
said one of 
the cases includes the language and the various people that someone 
could 
anticipate coming onto properties. Having a GIS reader shouldn't make a 
difference. These census takers have no business running through 
someone's back 
field or buildings, but they can approach the house. Commissioner 
Dinning said 
since the census is next year, how can this be a census worker. Attorney Robinson said these people are census workers and his office has checked on 
that. They are clearly there on behalf of the census takers, according 
to 
Attorney Robinson. 
 
Ron Force
Moscow ID USA





________________________________
From: Kenneth Marcy <kmmos1 at verizon.net>
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Sent: Fri, January 22, 2010 11:00:36 AM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] 2010 Census

On Friday 22 January 2010 09:42:17 Art Deco wrote:
> press.docOur property is posted to keep out a number of pests
> including hunters, salespeople, missionaries, religious
> psychopaths, criminals, nosey parkers/porkers, etc.
>
> Can a criminal trespass action be brought against census takers who
> violate the trespassing laws?

I suppose some windmill-tilting lawyer could file such a case, but I 
would not hold much hope for it going very far. Remember that the 
authority for the federal census specified in the US constitution, 
and there are additional federal statutes requiring citizens to 
participate in the census. So a trespassing case against a census 
worker carrying out census taking duties would seem to have a low 
probability of success given the strong federal mandate for the 
census.

On the other hand, if the federal administrative rules under which the 
census is conducted extend guidelines to census workers about which 
practical situations may be excused from that particular census 
worker's visit, that's another matter. In other words, if the feds 
say "We won't push this particular case," that's OK, because it's the 
fed's initiative. But if some citizen decides the feds don't need to 
count anyone at that residence, and the feds do want to count in that 
residence, then the citizen is at a considerable disadvantage.

It may be that there are some citizens who might need, in fact, might 
foolishly prefer, that the individual civilian census worker driving 
a hybrid be replaced by a fully-armored Humvee with half a dozen 
fully-armed special forces personnel, just to get the point across 
that the census data will be collected, whether or not the citizen 
happens to be having a bad-hair day. Fortunately for all of us, there 
are statistically more accurate census estimating techniques that do 
not require such military participation in census-taking, or give the 
opportunity for foolish bravado given such stronger data requests.


Ken

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