No-trespass orders part of police work
Staff writer
A kerfuffle at the Family Dollar in Peabody led to police serving a no-trespass order to a resident in Florence.
Peabody Police Chief Bruce Burke said a simple misunderstanding led to the dust-up. The one-time customer is no longer welcome at the Family Dollar, he said.
Officers serve about 50 no-trespass orders a year, Burke estimated.
Complaints are split between evenly between the Family Dollar, Dollar General, and private citizens, he said.
Serving orders takes up time and resources.
“We just incorporate them into our work,” Burke said Tuesday. “We have an obligation to serve and protect the public, and that’s fine and what we try to do.”
Subjects of no-trespass orders have “caused a problem somewhere,” he said.
“When someone comes in and makes a complaint, we take a written statement, assign a case number, and do a case jacket,” he explained.
After police serve an order, “we do an info report and put it in the case file that they’ve been notified. If they go back, we tell them they’re either going to jail for criminal trespass or they’re going to court for criminal trespass or both.”
Most people take it in stride — even though they may have made a ruckus.
“We don’t generally have any issues,” Burke said.
Sometimes things get a bit heated, but not enough to warrant a battery complaint, he said.
Police served the order involving Family Dollar on Thursday and another order involving a private citizen Thursday.
Orders involving private citizens generally are situations in which acquaintances get into arguments or private business deals don’t work out.