Medford, MA Soliciting & Door-to-Door: No-Knock Registry (2026)

Section 14-315, added by Ordinance No. 743 in 2008, lets a Medford property owner or occupant tell the city clerk that door-to-door salespeople, hawkers, peddlers or business entities are not welcome at the address; the clerk records the request on the Do Not Knock Registry using a form available at the clerk's office during normal business hours. Whenever the city clerk issues a solicitor's license under § 14-311, the clerk must hand the licensee the current Registry, and the licensee is barred from peddling, canvassing or making door-to-door sales at any address on that list.

A canvasser, peddler, itinerant vendor, or owner or employee of a door-to-door sales business who solicits a listed address faces an ordinance violation fine of $300.00 per offense and, separately or in addition, a one-year revocation of the license issued under the peddling article. Section 14-316 exempts not-for-profit organizations approved by the IRS or the Attorney General's Charitable Division, along with approved fraternal organizations, from the Registry and the rest of the peddling article, and assigns enforcement to any police officer, the code enforcement officer, or a building department inspector the building commissioner designates.

Section 14-317 requires the city clerk to keep a permanent record of every license issued under the peddling article, along with any convictions for violations and other incidents the police chief reports, so the Registry and the article's enforcement history sit in one file at city hall.