<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif;font-size:12pt"><div>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".<br>The Boundary County Commissioners discussed this, here's their minutes:<br><br><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">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. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Ron Force</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Moscow ID USA<br></p><br></div><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><hr size="1"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> Kenneth Marcy <kmmos1@verizon.net><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> vision2020@moscow.com<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Fri, January 22, 2010 11:00:36 AM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [Vision2020] 2010 Census<br></font><br>
On Friday 22 January 2010 09:42:17 Art Deco wrote:<br>> press.docOur property is posted to keep out a number of pests<br>> including hunters, salespeople, missionaries, religious<br>> psychopaths, criminals, nosey parkers/porkers, etc.<br>><br>> Can a criminal trespass action be brought against census takers who<br>> violate the trespassing laws?<br><br>I suppose some windmill-tilting lawyer could file such a case, but I <br>would not hold much hope for it going very far. Remember that the <br>authority for the federal census specified in the US constitution, <br>and there are additional federal statutes requiring citizens to <br>participate in the census. So a trespassing case against a census <br>worker carrying out census taking duties would seem to have a low <br>probability of success given the strong federal mandate for the <br>census.<br><br>On the other hand, if the federal administrative rules under which the <br>census is
conducted extend guidelines to census workers about which <br>practical situations may be excused from that particular census <br>worker's visit, that's another matter. In other words, if the feds <br>say "We won't push this particular case," that's OK, because it's the <br>fed's initiative. But if some citizen decides the feds don't need to <br>count anyone at that residence, and the feds do want to count in that <br>residence, then the citizen is at a considerable disadvantage.<br><br>It may be that there are some citizens who might need, in fact, might <br>foolishly prefer, that the individual civilian census worker driving <br>a hybrid be replaced by a fully-armored Humvee with half a dozen <br>fully-armed special forces personnel, just to get the point across <br>that the census data will be collected, whether or not the citizen <br>happens to be having a bad-hair day. Fortunately for all of us, there <br>are statistically more accurate census
estimating techniques that do <br>not require such military participation in census-taking, or give the <br>opportunity for foolish bravado given such stronger data requests.<br><br><br>Ken<br><br>=======================================================<br> List services made available by First Step Internet, <br> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <br><span> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.fsr.net">http://www.fsr.net</a> </span><br> mailto:<a ymailto="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com" href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">Vision2020@moscow.com</a><br>=======================================================<br></div></div>
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