BEAVER FALLS, Pa. -- Officials in Beaver Falls say residents do not cooperate when code enforcement officers tell them to clean up their property or mow their lawn.

Both code enforcement officers will be allowed to carry guns in order to make residents comply.

It is unclear if Beaver Falls is the only municipality to have armed code officers, but Robert Buddenbohn Jr., who heads the Pennsylvania Association of Building Code Officials, says he’s never heard of it before.

The association includes about 1,000 code officers working for nearly 1,800 municipalities in the state.

They are hoping residents will be more cooperative with code officers now that they carry weapons.