After months of drafting legislation, District 6 Councilman Mike Archer (R-Oakville) finally introduced a bill at the St. Louis County Council’s June 9 meeting to regulate “aggressive solicitation.”
Safety concerns were cited as the driving force behind this effort.
Per the bill language, “aggressive manner” concerning solicitation includes the soliciting individual intentionally or recklessly making any physical contact with another person without that person’s consent; following the individual being solicited to cause fear and/or intimidation; continuing to solicit within five feet of the individual being solicited after the individual has made a negative response; intentionally or recklessly blocking the safe or free passage of the individual being solicited and intentionally or recklessly using obscene or abusive language or gestures.
The bill also prohibits soliciting “in any public transportation vehicle, or bus or stop,” including the entrance and exit ramps to interstate highways, as well as state or county roads. Other prohibited actions include soliciting from an operator of a motor vehicle in traffic on a public street; soliciting within 15 feet of any entrance or exit of any bank, check-cashing business or automated teller machine (ATM) during hours of operation without the consent of the owner; and soliciting on private property “if the owner, tenant or lawful occupant has asked the person not to solicit on the property, or has posted a sign clearly indicating that solicitations are not welcome on the property.”
Under this bill, soliciting would not be permitted between the hours of sunset and 9 a.m. or during inclement weather when visibility is limited, and traffic laws require that the operator of a motor vehicle use windshield wipers and/or headlights. The inclement weather caveat would be enforced no matter the time of day.
The bill, as of The Call’s press time, has simply been introduced; no action has yet been taken by the council.
This effort was inspired in part by Archer’s time knocking on doors while campaigning for his county council seat in 2024, as well as the increasing number of dangerous incidents involving solicitors getting injured by oncoming traffic, particularly in the dark.
“We’ve had people hurt, so the whole impetus for this is the safety of the people,” Archer said in an interview with The Call in October.
While Archer has heard mostly positive feedback on this, there has been some negative pushback. The majority of the opposition has centered around leaving the unhoused alone.
“I’m talking about a public safety aspect of it, and they’re talking about a personal privacy aspect of it,” Archer said.
On the other side, some constituents have suggested more extreme measures, such as forcibly removing solicitors from the area.
“There have been some phone calls … this woman said, ‘Well, we need to put them on a bus and ship them out’ — I’m half Cherokee, and that forced deportation just kind of grates on my genetic soul,” Archer said.
In 2023, a bill introduced by former District 6 Councilman Ernie Trakas banning standing on a county street or median was passed by the council; County Executive Sam Page later vetoed that bill.
