Bloomington, IL Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

City Code § 28-112, 'Congregating in stairways and on street corners,' is Bloomington's general loitering ordinance. It reaches anyone who loiters or congregates about or upon a stairway, doorway, window, or in front of a business, dwelling house, theater, lecture room, church, street corner 'or elsewhere,' provided the loitering does one of two things: obstructs or interferes with the free passage of people entering or occupying the building or premises, or, through language, conversation or conduct, annoys, insults or disturbs people passing along the street or occupying, residing or doing business nearby.

Unlike the City's separate narcotics-related loitering ordinance at § 28-193, which lets the Chief of Police designate enforcement zones and requires officers to issue a dispersal order before an arrest, § 28-112 applies citywide without a designated-area procedure and criminalizes the conduct directly. Conviction is a misdemeanor with a fine of not less than $3 nor more than $100 for each offense, and the section expressly makes it the duty of every policeman to arrest and prosecute all persons offending under it, giving the Bloomington Police Department a mandatory rather than discretionary enforcement instruction.

The ordinance sits in Chapter 28 alongside related public-order sections such as disorderly conduct (§ 28-105) and unlawful assemblage (§ 28-102), and officers commonly pair a § 28-112 charge with those sections when a street-corner group refuses to move on.