Wichita, KS Public Conduct: Aggressive Panhandling (2026)

50, 'Harassing and Aggressive Contact,' by Ordinance No. 50-643 on December 19, 2017, replacing an older loitering-based begging law (former Sec. 040, repealed the same day) with a conduct-based standard that reaches coercive solicitation without naming panhandling directly. Sec. 020 defines 'Contact' as any intentional action attempting to attract another person's attention 'for the purpose of inducing such other person to slow, stop' or that 'obstructs or hinders the movement of such other person to facilitate a transfer of anything to or from either person,' language written to cover a hand extended for cash as much as a flyer pushed at a passerby.

'Public Place' is defined broadly to include streets, highways, transportation facilities, parks, playgrounds, parking lots, and the entryway, doorway or vestibule of any store, restaurant, or tavern, so the rule follows a solicitor from the sidewalk to a business door. Sec. 030 then lists five specific acts that turn contact into a violation: nonconsensual touching, blocking or obstructing safe passage (including forcing a person to take evasive action), violent or threatening conduct, profane or abusive language likely to provoke a breach of the peace, and approaching or following someone in a manner intended or likely to cause fear of imminent bodily harm, property loss, or intimidation into a handout.

Ordinary, non-threatening requests for money are not reached; the ordinance is triggered only by the coercive conduct itemized in subsections (a) through (e). The chapter's original purpose statement, Sec. 010, was itself repealed by Ordinance No. 52-603 on January 7, 2025, leaving the operative prohibition in Sec. 030 and its definitions and penalty sections intact.