Clearwater, FL Public Conduct: Aggressive Panhandling (2026)

17, "To beg by intimidation," targets the aggressive end of panhandling rather than panhandling itself. The ordinance defines 'beg' as asking, soliciting or pleading, orally or in writing, for money, goods or gifts of value for oneself or another person, and defines 'intimidate' as conduct toward a person that would cause a reasonable person to be fearful of imminent harm to person or property. Subsection (2) then makes it unlawful for any person to beg with the intent to intimidate; the intimidation element, not the request for money itself, is what the ordinance criminalizes.

The section, adopted by Ordinance No. 19 bars approaching an occupied vehicle stopped in traffic to solicit or sell, with a narrow chief-of-police exemption process for organized charitable solicitation lasting up to ten cumulative days a year. 18, was repealed by Ordinance No. 17's intimidation standard as the city's current baseline aggressive-panhandling rule. 00, up to 60 days in the county jail, or both, imposed by the Pinellas County Court, rather than the lighter civil-infraction fines used for most other code chapters.