Conroe, TX Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

City Code § 46-10, adopted by Ordinance No. 2234-15 in 2015, defines a drug crime as selling or purchasing a controlled substance under state or federal law and a known drug offender as someone the arresting officer knows was convicted of a drug crime within the prior five years. The offense requires loitering in a public place with intent to commit a drug crime, and that intent must be shown by conduct and circumstances that openly demonstrate the purpose, not by presence alone. Section 46-10(b) lists three circumstances an officer may weigh: whether the person is a known drug offender, whether the location is known for drug-related criminal activity, or whether the person's behavior raises a reasonable suspicion of an imminent drug crime, including physical signs of intoxication, needle tracks, visible drug paraphernalia, or furtive exchanges of currency or small objects typical of illegal drug sales.

The statute builds in a procedural safeguard at § 46-10(c): no arrest may be made unless the officer first gives the person an opportunity to explain the conduct, and it is a defense to prosecution that the explanation was true and disclosed a lawful purpose. This section sits in Chapter 46, Article I alongside the city's other general public-conduct offenses, distinct from Article II's separate ban on soliciting to purchase a controlled substance under § 46-31.