Mission Viejo, CA Public Conduct: Aggressive Panhandling (2026)

Sec. 040(a) flatly bars soliciting in an aggressive manner anywhere in the city. Subsection (b) defines "aggressive manner" through six behaviors: approaching, speaking to, or following a person before, during or after soliciting in a way likely to make a reasonable person fear bodily harm, fear damage to or loss of property, or feel intimidated into giving money; intentionally touching or making physical contact with someone without consent while soliciting; intentionally blocking or interfering with a pedestrian's or vehicle's safe passage, including forcing evasive action to avoid contact; using violent or threatening gestures toward the person solicited; persisting in closely following or approaching someone after that person has said, by words or conduct, that they do not want to be solicited or do not want to give money; and using profane, offensive or abusive language that is inherently likely to provoke an immediate violent reaction.

24, which also separately bans any solicitation, aggressive or not, from someone standing in the right-of-way directed at a person in a passing vehicle, and vice versa (Sec. 020), and bans solicitation within 25 feet of a bank entrance or an ATM or other cash-dispensing machine (Sec. 050). A related provision requires commercial parking areas that want to permit solicitation to post an 18-by-24-inch notice at each entrance warning that unauthorized solicitation there is a misdemeanor (Sec. 030). Because Sec. 040 is written around specific, observable conduct such as touching, blocking, threatening gestures and persistence after refusal, rather than the act of asking for money itself, an officer applying it must be able to point to one of the six listed behaviors, not merely that a request for money was made.