A firm paid to collect signatures to put several initiatives on the fall ballot says its workers are being deprived of their rights by the police, a charge authorities deny.

"My sole concern is that National Voter Outreach is being prohibited from doing business by the very people who are supposed to protect and serve," said Bonnie Russell, spokeswoman for the signature-gathering firm.

Russell alleges that petition gatherers in St. Charles, St. Peters and O'Fallon and elsewhere in the state have been the victims of a coordinated effort by opponents, who don't want the initiatives brought to a vote. She said the opponents had falsely complained to businesses that they were treated rudely by petitioners outside their doors.

The businesses, afraid of losing a customer, then contact police and ask that the signature gatherers be told to leave. Russell alleges that police have quickly sided with the complainants and dispatched the petitioners.

St. Peters Police Sgt. David Kuppler said the petitioners' rights on private property were at the discretion of the owner.

"It would be no different than if they were standing on the front porch of your house trying to collect signatures of people coming into your home," he said. "You have the right to tell them you don't want them on your porch just as much as a business owner has the right to tell them they don't want them at the front door of their business."

Kuppler said that St. Peters police had dealt with similar issues before -- for example, the pickets during the grocery strike.

"We have never had any problems with the officers managing and informing and keeping everybody within their rights," he said.

Russell said that National Voter Outreach had been around for 17 years and that the group had not experienced similar problems in any other part of the country.

The group is seeking signers on a variety of initiatives, including eminent domain and the tobacco tax. Petition gatherers are paid varying amounts of money for each signature they get.

One petitioner filed a formal complaint against St. Charles police Monday over his treatment at Wal-Mart last weekend. The petitioner alleges that he was handcuffed and driven a short distance from the store by an officer, then let go.

St. Charles Police Capt. Gerry Pollard said that the incident was being investigated but that so far, police had not been able to substantiate any of the man's claims. There is no report of a petitioner's being detained, and the man was unable to identify who had arrested him from a lineup of police photos, he said.

O'Fallon Police Officer Diana Damke said that if a business requested the petitioners to move, they would be allowed to remain on the sidewalk, a public area. If they disregarded police, the petitioners could be issued a summons for trespassing.

Russell said the group's workers should not be limited to the sidewalk.

"The parking lot is the community of all," she said.

The current clash will be over by Sunday, the deadline for turning in the signatures to get on the ballot.