Highlands County, FL Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

Highlands County does not have a general loitering or vagrancy ordinance applicable to the public at large; the county's only codified loitering restriction, section 4-251, is written narrowly into the Sexually Oriented Business Ordinance in Chapter 4, Article IV. It applies only to an employee of a licensed or unlicensed sexually oriented business, meaning an adult arcade, adult bookstore or video store, adult cabaret, adult dancing establishment, adult motel, adult motion picture theater, adult theater, escort agency, or nude model studio as defined in section 4-102.

The section makes it unlawful for that employee to loiter outside any structure on the business's premises, or to advertise on the employee's own behalf, another employee's behalf, or the business's behalf while positioned outside the structure, including sitting or standing outside it or waving to or otherwise enticing potential customers to come in. The statute defines 'outside any structure' as any place at the business where the employee is visible from a public right-of-way or sidewalk, so the rule reaches a parking lot or sidewalk frontage the same way it reaches the building's front steps. ' The Sheriff's Office, which verifies and enforces sexually oriented business compliance under section 4-141(c), is the agency responsible for enforcing this section.