Bessemer, AL Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

Outside the police-checkpoint context and the juvenile curfew in section 78-95, Bessemer's code does not carry a general public loitering offense. Section 78-127 authorizes the chief of police to establish a police line or checkpoint anywhere circumstances require it, listing explosions, fires, epidemics, and civil disturbances as the kinds of events that justify one. Section 78-128 then restricts entry to the area behind that line to residents, business operators, customers, and people the chief or the officer in charge determines have legitimate business there. Section 78-129 supplies the conduct rules once a line exists: subsection (a) forbids entering the restricted area against an officer's order; subsection (b) requires anyone admitted as a customer or service provider to go straight to the business and leave without delay; subsection (c) bars congregating near the line and refusing to disperse when ordered; and subsection (d) is the loitering clause itself, prohibiting anyone from remaining or loitering at or near the line after being asked to depart, or from refusing to leave the restricted area on an officer's request.

Section 78-130 makes clear these powers stack on top of, rather than replace, any other authority the police or fire department already has. Because this provision is tied to an active checkpoint rather than everyday sidewalks or storefronts, it does not reach ordinary loitering outside a declared emergency or disturbance.