Concord, NC Public Conduct: Aggressive Panhandling (2026)

Sec. 42-10(a) does not ban panhandling outright; it targets four specific behaviors when soliciting or begging for money or property from another person in any public place. It is unlawful to force yourself upon the company of another person, to make repeated requests of the same person after that person has already refused, to curse, shout at, or otherwise rudely insult others in conjunction with a request for money or property, or to block or otherwise interfere with access to any public or private place or passage across or along a sidewalk in conjunction with a request for money or property.

The ordinance is paired with a related roadway-solicitation rule that separately bars standing, sitting, or loitering in a street or highway, including shoulders and median strips but excluding sidewalks, to stop vehicles for solicitation or to accept contributions from occupants of stopped vehicles. Together the two rules let people ask for help on Concord sidewalks and public places while barring aggressive, repeated, obstructive, or roadway-based solicitation. S. 160A-179, separately authorizes municipalities to regulate begging, and Concord's ordinance is its local exercise of that authority. Concord police, not the state, enforce this section, and it applies citywide in any public place, not just downtown or business districts.