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

Sec. 11-105, titled 'Begging Prohibited,' is a flat, location-based ban rather than a graduated 'aggressive panhandling' standard: it is unlawful for any person to beg or solicit money or aid on his or her own behalf at any place of business, house of worship, street, sidewalk, or county right-of-way. The section applies only within the unincorporated area of Chatham County; Savannah and the county's cities enforce their own separate panhandling or solicitation ordinances, so conduct inside those city limits is not reached by this section.

Because Sec. 11-105 does not set out its own fine, a conviction falls under the code's general penalty, Sec. 2-108, which applies whenever an offense is 'declared to be unlawful' without a specific penalty of its own: a fine of not more than $500, imprisonment in the county jail for not more than 30 days, labor on the county work gang for not more than 60 days, or any combination the court orders, plus court costs, with each day of continuing violation charged as a separate offense.

The section sits in Chapter 11, Article I, alongside the county's other public-order offenses (disorderly conduct, loitering, unlawful assembly), all enforced by the Chatham County Police Department, and its no-manner-qualifier text reaches any solicitation in the listed locations, not merely conduct that is threatening or obstructive.