Royal Oak, MI Public Conduct: Aggressive Panhandling (2026)

Section 278-45, Loitering, amended May 2, 2011 by Ordinance No. 2011-09, makes it a criminal offense to loiter, remain or wander in a public place for the purpose of aggressive begging. Subsection A lists five specific acts that turn ordinary panhandling into the aggressive variety: touching the solicited person without consent; blocking the path of the person solicited or the entrance to a building or vehicle; following behind, alongside or ahead of someone who has walked away after being solicited; using abusive language during or after a solicitation, or making any statement, gesture or other communication that would make a reasonable person fearful or feel compelled to donate; and soliciting a patron seated at a sidewalk cafe without first getting the cafe operator's permission.

The ordinance targets the manner of solicitation, not the act of asking for money itself, so a person quietly holding a sign or asking passersby for change on a Royal Oak sidewalk is not violating this subsection unless one of the five listed behaviors is present. Because § 278-45 carries no fine of its own, a conviction defaults to Chapter 278's general penalty clause, § 278-52, which authorizes a fine of not more than $500, imprisonment of not more than 90 days, or both, at the court's discretion. Royal Oak Police Department officers document the specific aggressive-begging act observed, since the citation must identify which of the five statutory behaviors occurred.