# No Tresspassing - Police take notice

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tresspassing-police-take-notice/137435>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 19, 2002, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tresspassing-police-take-notice/137435 "2002-11-19T01:46:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tresspassing-police-take-notice/137435/1 "2002-11-19T01:46:19Z")

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WTF does this mean. Literally It seems like you want to police to take the ‘no tresspassing’ sign but for some reason I don’t think it means that.

So we are left with:

A warning to the tresspasser that police will notice you tresspassing.

or

a request to the police to notice the sign and help enforce the no tresspassing.

So which is it?

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**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tresspassing-police-take-notice/137435/2 "2002-11-19T02:06:50Z")

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Go ask the property owner?

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**Author:** ![Pencil\_Pusher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Pencil\_Pusher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pencil_Pusher)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tresspassing-police-take-notice/137435/3 "2002-11-19T03:21:51Z")

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A private property owner would not have the ability to direct the police to patrol property. Therefore, it must be a request to the police.

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**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tresspassing-police-take-notice/137435/4 "2002-11-19T03:25:55Z")

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Yeah, it’s meant to draw the cops’ attention to the fact that if they see somebody in that parking lot/driveway/whatever, they ain’t supposed to be there.

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**Author:** ![Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Guy)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tresspassing-police-take-notice/137435/5 "2002-11-19T04:38:57Z")

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What DDG sez. Especially when the owner can’t be there to explicitly warn against trespassing (undeveloped rural property, or just a parking lot that’s popular for late-night cruising) - that sort of phrasing tells the police that they can go ahead and clear people off the property without needing the owner to tell them in person.