Five Weird Laws on the Books in Evanston

Every city in America has a handful of unusual or surprising laws on the books.

Here are a few from Evanston’s City Code that you might find informative, interesting or outright strange.

You can be arrested and detained by Evanston’s mayor, aldermen, city clerk, city manager, assistant city manager, corporation counsel and fire chief

According to section 9-1-5 of the Evanston City Code, police powers are extended to all of the aforementioned members of the city government because they have been declared “conservators of the peace and law enforcing officers”.

Their powers include the ability to “arrest or cause to be arrested, with or without process, all persons who break the peace, or are found violating any municipal ordinance or any criminal law of the state”, to “commit arrested persons for examination”, to “if necessary, detain arrested persons in custody overnight or Sunday in any safe place, or until they can be brought before the proper magistrate”, and to “exercise all other powers as corporate authorities may prescribe”.

It is illegal to spit on the sidewalk

Common sense would tell you that you shouldn’t spit on the floor of a government building. You might even suspect that doing so would earn you a ticket or a court date. But did you know that spitting on a public sidewalk in Evanston is also illegal?

According to section 9-5-22 of the Evanston City Code:

“It shall be unlawful for any person to spit upon any public walk, upon the floor of any public conveyance or upon the floor or wall of any theater, hall, assembly room or public building.”

So when walking down a city street, make sure you keep your saliva where it belongs.

If a police officer asks for your assistance, you are legally obligated to obey

When a police officer gives a normal order, such as asking drivers to provide their license and registration, or asking rubberneckers to keep their distance from a crime scene, most people will obey.

But imagine if a policeman demanded to use your car to chase a criminal or if an officer asked you to help restrain a suspect. Would you comply?

Though both scenarios seem unlikely, according to section 9-5-18-3 of the City Code, if you were asked to do these things, you would be legally obligated to help. The Evanston law states that if you are physically and mentally capable of helping a police officer and the officer asks for your help, you must aid the officer or risk being fined $750.

The City of Evanston can auction off seized, stolen or unclaimed property… unless the chief of police thinks the item is useful to the city

The Evanston City Code states that, in most cases, the rightful owner of lost or stolen items recovered by the city has 60 days to claim the property before it can be put up for auction. If the city chooses to auction the item, a custodian appointed by the chief of police must advertise the item’s auction “in the official city newspaper” and wait another 10 days for the property to be claimed before the thing can legally be sold off.

However, after the initial 60 day period and the 10 day auction advertisement, if the police chief thinks the item can be of some use, the city can simply keep it.

According to section 9-7-3:

“If any unclaimed property advertised for sale is deemed by the Chief of Police to be useful to the City, it shall not be sold but shall be retained for the use of the City”

Evanston’s city manager can order you and your home quarantined

If City of Evanston officials suspect a person or group of people has a contagious, dangerous, easily-transmittable disease, the city manager can issue a quarantine and isolation order.

Section 8-22-3 of the Evanston City Code states:

“The basis for the determination that the person, group of persons or animals have a communicable disease, may be incubating a communicable disease, or have chemical or radiological contamination and that the person, group of persons or animal(s) pose(s) a substantial threat to the public health and that quarantine or isolation is necessary to protect and preserve the public health, or that a premises is in such a condition that could lead to such communicable disease or contamination. The premises shall be posted with a notice that the premises is under quarantine.”

Anyone who defies the city manager’s orders, either by entering a quarantined area or attempting to leave one, can be fined between $250 and $500, which honestly seems like chump change in the face of a radiological contamination threat.