Darlington County, SC Public Conduct: Aggressive Panhandling (2026)

Section 54-2(a) bars anyone from standing on a highway or street to solicit employment, business, or contributions from the occupant of a vehicle, subject to S.C. Code 1976 § 5-27-910. Subsection (b) carves out an exception for rescue squads, volunteer fire departments, and charitable or eleemosynary organizations, which may solicit funds on unincorporated county roads only if they have obtained a permit and keep it with them at the solicitation site. Subsection (c) puts permitting in the hands of the county administrator's office, which can attach reasonable conditions protecting the safety of motorists, pedestrians, and the solicitors themselves, and can require that solicitation not unreasonably impede traffic flow; no single organization may receive more than two such permits in a calendar year.

The ordinance, adopted by Ord. No. 12-17 in January 2013, is codified in Chapter 54, Article I among the county's general street and roadway rules, reflecting that Darlington County Council regulates intersection and roadway solicitation countywide in the unincorporated area rather than leaving it to municipal police power. Because the ban targets the act of standing in the roadway to solicit from vehicles, an individual panhandler without a permit who approaches cars stopped at an intersection falls squarely within subsection (a), regardless of whether the request is aggressive or passive.