Union County, NJ Public Conduct: Aggressive Panhandling (2026)

Section 115-33, titled Posting Bills and Soliciting, groups several restrictions on distributing material and asking for money on county land. Subsection D states flatly that no person shall solicit alms or contribution for any purpose while on property owned, leased or otherwise under the control of the County of Union. Unlike a targeted aggressive-panhandling ordinance that only reaches coercive or threatening solicitation, this provision is written as a categorical ban on soliciting alms anywhere on county-controlled ground, regardless of manner. The same section separately bars handing out commercial handbills (subsection A, with a non-commercial handbill exception), depositing handbills in vehicles (subsection B), and posting notices on lampposts or county structures without a County Manager permit (subsection C), plus a related ban on unpermitted commercial ventures in subsection E.

B confines the Public Safety Code to county-owned, leased or controlled property, the alms-soliciting ban applies at county parks, the county courthouse grounds and similar county sites, not on municipal sidewalks or in front of stores within Elizabeth, Plainfield or the county's other towns, where solicitation is instead governed by each municipality's own ordinance or First Amendment case law limits on panhandling regulation.