Middletown, OH Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

085 of the Middletown Codified Ordinances makes it unlawful for a person, while in or near a public place and with the purpose to solicit another for sexual activity for hire, to do any of five specific things: beckon to, stop or attempt to stop another person; engage or attempt to engage another in conversation; stop or attempt to stop a vehicle's operator or approach a stationary vehicle; if the offender is driving or riding in a vehicle, stop, beckon to or entice another to approach or enter that vehicle; or interfere with the free passage of another.

PUBLIC PLACE is defined broadly to include streets, roads, highways, bikeways, walkways, sidewalks, bridges, alleys, plazas, parks, driveways, parking lots and transportation facilities, plus any doorway or entrance fronting on one of those, and any other place open to the public. A conviction under division (a) is loitering to engage in solicitation, a third-degree misdemeanor. The ordinance carries a separate, harsher tier: anyone who commits the same conduct while knowing they have tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS commits loitering to engage in solicitation after a positive HIV test under division (b), prosecuted as a felony under state law rather than the municipal code. The section sits in Chapter 666, Middletown's prostitution-related offenses, alongside soliciting and prostitution itself.