Bowling Green, KY Public Conduct: Aggressive Panhandling (2026)

Sec. 9-4.02 of the Bowling Green Code of Ordinances, adopted by Ordinance BG2018-3 (January 16, 2018), states that no person shall engage in aggressive panhandling, begging, charitable and political solicitation at any time or any location in the City of Bowling Green. Sec. 9-4.01 defines that conduct to include confronting someone in a way that would cause a reasonable person to fear bodily harm, accosting an individual to cause fear of imminent bodily harm or a criminal act, touching someone without consent, using obscene or abusive language while soliciting, forcing oneself upon another by continuing to solicit after a negative response or blocking their passage, acting with intent to intimidate someone into giving money, and other conduct a reasonable person would regard as threatening.

Because the aggressive-conduct ban applies citywide with no location exception, it is broader than the companion Sec. 9-4.03 rule for passive panhandling, which the Board of Commissioners found is speech protected under the First Amendment and which is instead restricted only within twenty feet of ATMs, bus stops, sidewalk cafes, building entrances, schools and similar 'heightened concern' zones, and within traffic lanes and medians. The distinction matters for enforcement: passive requests for money are lawful on ordinary sidewalks, but any of the seven aggressive-conduct behaviors listed in Sec. 9-4.01 is unlawful everywhere in the City regardless of location.