Pawtucket, RI Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

Chapter 266, adopted in 1967 as part of the 1966 Code's Section 12-11, opens with a flat ban in § 266-1: no one may loiter, lounge or sleep in or upon a street, park or public place or public building, or obstruct access to a public building or passage through a public street, park or public place. Section 266-2 defines LOITER broadly and non-exclusively, covering obstruction of pedestrians or vehicles; obstructing, molesting or interfering with anyone lawfully in a public place; remaining idle in one spot without being able to show a legitimate reason for it; standing idly by, loafing or walking aimlessly, described in the code itself as hanging around; and refusing to move on when a peace officer asks, so long as the officer used reasonable discretion to preserve public peace and order.

The definition also extends OTHER PUBLIC PLACE to the quasi-public area in front of or next to a store, shop, restaurant or luncheonette, and to parking lots or vacant private property not owned by the person charged. Article II, added in 1991, layers a separate prohibition in § 266-4 against standing or wandering on a highway, street or public or private place to solicit passersby or stop vehicles for prostitution or another indecent act, or to patronize, induce or secure someone else to do so.

The general loitering offense in § 266-1 and the prostitution-loitering offense in § 266-4 are enforced separately, and only the general offense carries the fixed fine set in § 266-3.