Southfield, MI Public Conduct: Aggressive Panhandling (2026)

Southfield City Code § 9.122 folds panhandling regulation into the city's broader disorderly-conduct ordinance, which makes acting in a disorderly manner punishable as a misdemeanor. The section separately defines begging, panhandling and soliciting as asking for money or an object of value meant to change hands immediately, and it defines aggressive manner through eight specific behaviors: approaching, speaking to, or following a person if that conduct is likely to make a reasonable person fear bodily harm or property damage; continuing to solicit after a negative response; touching a person without consent while soliciting; blocking or interfering with a pedestrian's or driver's safe passage; using violent or threatening language or gestures likely to provoke an immediate violent reaction; following a person with intent to ask for money; conduct likely to cause fear of immediate bodily harm; and soliciting after dark, defined as the half hour before sunset to the half hour after sunrise.

Beyond aggressive conduct, § 9.122 bans begging or soliciting in three other circumstances regardless of manner: on private property whose owner or occupant has asked the person not to solicit or has posted a no-solicitation sign; within 15 feet of an ATM, measured from the facility entrance where the machine sits inside one; and within 15 feet of any outdoor café or restaurant seating area. The section's findings recite that the city has a compelling interest in narrowly tailored time, place and manner rules that protect First Amendment activity while safeguarding the people being solicited.

Because § 9.122 sits inside the general disorderly-conduct section, a violation is prosecuted as a misdemeanor rather than a civil infraction, tracing to Ord. No. 1066 (1981) as amended by Ord. No. 1627 in 2014, which added the panhandling-specific language.