Clayton County, GA Public Conduct: Aggressive Panhandling (2026)

Sec. 94-6 was adopted by Ord. No. 00-28 in March 2000 and amended twice since, most recently by Ord. No. 2009-154 in October 2009. Subsection (a) makes it unlawful for any person to stand in or enter a street, roadway or highway to solicit money or anything of value, a rule that reaches panhandlers working intersections and charitable groups collecting donations from stopped cars alike; the ban covers the roadway itself, not the adjacent sidewalk or private property. Subsection (b) carves out a narrow exception: uniformed members of the fire department or police department, and uniformed deputy sheriffs, may stand in the roadway while performing public service such as directing traffic around a fire scene or other emergency, provided their department head or the sheriff has authorized the activity.

The ordinance reasons that these officers are trained, readily identifiable to drivers, and unlikely to cause alarm, unlike an unauthorized solicitor stepping into traffic. Chapter 94 carries no dedicated fine for this section, so a violation defaults to Sec. 94-2's general chapter penalty, which applies Sec. 00, up to six months in the county jail, or both, for a single offense. Enforcement falls to county police officers and deputy sheriffs patrolling the unincorporated roads, and prosecution runs through the state court solicitor's office named in Sec. 1-13.