Bossier City, LA Public Conduct: Aggressive Panhandling (2026)

Section 38-303 defines personal solicitation broadly as any in-person request for an affirmative act, including a request for money or other gratuity, made through speech or gesture. It expressly carves out passive expression: wearing or carrying a sign, message or image, on clothing, a hat, a bag or a similar item, is not personal solicitation unless the person displaying it also speaks, gestures or acts to make the request. The section then lists five ways a solicitation becomes aggressive and unlawful when made in a public place: intentionally touching the solicited person without consent before, during or immediately after the request; persisting after the person has given a negative response; intentionally blocking the solicited person's path or blocking entrance to a building or vehicle; using profane, abusive or personally threatening language, or any statement, gesture or action that would make a reasonable person fear unwanted physical contact or harm to person or property, at any point around the request; and, when soliciting as part of a group of two or more, having another member of the group commit any of the first four acts while the direct solicitation is made.

Added by Ordinance No. 32-2017 on March 7, 2017, the section is one of the newer additions to Chapter 38's public-conduct article and sits alongside the desecration-of-graves and housing-felony-offenders sections, all enforced by the Bossier City Police Department rather than any code-enforcement or business-licensing office.