Riverside, CA Public Conduct: Aggressive Panhandling (2026)

010(C)(3) to cover following or approaching someone in a way likely to make a reasonable person fear bodily harm or property loss; touching a person or their occupied vehicle without consent while soliciting; blocking or interfering with a pedestrian's or driver's safe passage; using violent or threatening gestures; persisting after being told no; or using profane or abusive language likely to provoke violence. That aggressive-manner ban, in subsection (D), applies everywhere in any 'public place': defined broadly in (C)(2) to include streets, freeway ramps, sidewalks, parking lots, and even entryways of businesses and apartment buildings.

Subsection (E) then layers on location-specific bans that don't require aggressive conduct at all: no soliciting within 15 feet of a bank, savings and loan, credit union, or check-cashing business during business hours, or within 15 feet of an ATM while it's in service; no approaching a vehicle occupant to solicit; no soliciting in a public parking lot or structure after dark (defined as 30 minutes after sunset to 30 minutes before sunrise); no soliciting on public transportation vehicles; no approaching vehicles at gas stations or fuel pumps; no approaching a vehicle within 25 feet of a driveway serving a shopping center or business; no soliciting on any street median or at any freeway entrance or exit ramp; and no approaching an outdoor dining area to solicit.

Narrow exemptions cover on-premises business solicitations, lawful towing, and emergency vehicle repairs. The City Council grounded the ordinance in Los Angeles Alliance For Survival v. 4th 352, framing it as a content-neutral time-place-manner rule under Article XI of the California Constitution.