El Monte, CA Public Conduct: Aggressive Panhandling (2026)

04's aggressive panhandling section applies citywide, on streets, sidewalks, parking lots, and any other place open to the public regardless of whether it is publicly or privately owned. The ordinance targets "soliciting alms," defined as face-to-face panhandling in which one person asks a third person for money or something of value by words, bodily gestures, signs, or other means. Simple, non-threatening panhandling is not itself banned; the ordinance instead defines three specific fact patterns that turn a solicitation into a prohibited "coerce, threaten, hound, or intimidate" violation: (1) conduct that causes a reasonable solicitee to fear for his or her safety, (2) intentionally blocking the solicitee's path or unreasonably obstructing their movement, and (3) following the solicitee and continuing to demand money after the solicitee has already said no by words, gesture, sign, or other means.

Any one of these three triggers is enough to violate the section; the solicitor does not need to touch or physically strike the target. 010, which sets misdemeanors at up to a $1,000 fine, up to six months in the city or county jail, or both, with each day a violation continues charged as a separate offense. 010(B) to file a charge as an infraction instead when doing so serves the interests of justice, which caps exposure at a $100 fine for a first offense, $200 for a second within a year, and $500 for a third or later offense in the same twelve-month period.

Enforcement falls to the El Monte Police Department, which can cite or arrest based on an officer's or a complaining witness's account of the blocking, following, or fear-inducing conduct described in the three statutory prongs.