Baytown, TX Public Conduct: Aggressive Panhandling (2026)

Section 74-151(c) sets three specific rules. First, once a solicitee makes any request to stop, verbally or through a gesture like 'stop,' 'back off,' or 'leave me alone,' the solicitor in a public place must immediately discontinue all efforts to solicit. Second, no solicitor may panhandle within 50 feet of an ATM, pay telephone, parking meter, parking fee collection box, vending machine, or fuel dispensing device, with the 50-foot distance measured from any extension of the solicitor's body, including a sign or object he's carrying, to the structure itself. Third, standing in a roadway to solicit a ride, contribution, employment, or business from a vehicle's occupant is barred outright, except for a charitable solicitation authorized under state Transportation Code section 552.0071.

The section defines 'panhandle' as obtaining or seeking to obtain something by accosting or begging, and 'solicitation' as seeking goods or funds for food, personal favors, drink, lodging, or vehicle fare by gesture or verbal communication. It exempts anyone already operating under a valid itinerant merchant or open-air vendor license, a charitable solicitations campaign permit, or a state-authorized roadway charitable solicitation. A knowing or intentional violation is a misdemeanor punished under section 1-14, and the police chief may issue administrative rules to implement the section.