Leominster, MA Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

Section 14-5 lists five separate prohibitions. It bars behaving in a disorderly manner and using indecent or profane language on any street or other public place. It also makes it unlawful to remain on a doorstep, portico or other projection of a house or building after the person in charge, a constable or a police officer has asked the person to leave, and to loiter in the lobby, hallway or corridor of a hall, theater or other building while a dance, entertainment or meeting is underway there.

The broadest clause, subsection (e), reaches any public area or any area the public has a right to access: a person cannot remain there for a purpose the area is not customarily or generally used for unless the chief of police or another authorized city official has first issued a permit. The chief may grant that permit for a specific public assemblage or congregation if the gathering, in the chief's judgment, would not create a hazard or threaten the safety and passage of the general public. The section dates to the 1960 Revised Ordinances and was last amended May 10, 1976. Because Sec. 14-5 sets no fine of its own, a violation falls under the citywide general penalty at Section 1-7, which caps a fine at three hundred dollars per offense unless another ordinance or state law sets a different amount.