Spokane Valley, WA Public Conduct: Aggressive Panhandling (2026)

020 criminalizes "aggressive solicitation," defined as soliciting with intent to intimidate another person into complying with the solicited request; intimidate is separately defined as to coerce or frighten into submission or obedience. "Solicit" is written broadly and covers asking, begging, requesting, or pleading, orally or in writing, directly or by implication, for employment, goods, services, financial aid, monetary gifts, or anything of monetary value; it also covers selling or offering goods, services, or publications for immediate sale, distributing goods, services, or publications without charge, and soliciting signatures on a petition or opinions for a survey.

The ordinance defines "public place" expansively to include any road, alley, lane, parking area, or sidewalk, and any other place, private or otherwise, adapted for vehicular or pedestrian travel that is in common use by the public with the owner's consent, plus public playgrounds, school grounds, recreation grounds, parks, parkways, park drives, park paths, and public rights-of-way. Because the offense turns on intimidating intent rather than merely asking for money, ordinary panhandling without intimidation is not itself charged under this section; the City instead reaches only the coercive or intimidating variety. The section has been amended twice since the 2003 original criminal code, in 2010 and again in 2016.