San Antonio, TX Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

Sec. 21-25 defines 'loiter' as delaying or lingering without a lawful purpose for being on a public street or place, for the purpose of committing a crime as opportunity may be discovered, and separately defines a 'known prostitute or panderer' as someone convicted of a prostitution-related offense within two years before their arrest. Subsection (c) makes it unlawful to loiter in or near any street or public place in a manner and under circumstances manifesting a purpose of inducing, enticing, soliciting or procuring another to commit prostitution.

The section lists non-exclusive circumstances officers may weigh, including whether the person is a known prostitute or panderer and whether they repeatedly beckon to, stop, or engage passersby in conversation indicative of soliciting, or repeatedly try to stop a vehicle by hailing or waving. Sec. 21-25(c)(3) builds in a due-process check absent from many loitering laws: no arrest can be made unless the officer first gives the person an opportunity to explain the conduct, and no conviction can stand if the explanation given was true and disclosed a lawful purpose for being there.

Sec. 21-25(c)(4) directs enforcing officers to exercise the same discretion the Texas Penal Code allows. The prostitution offenses themselves, covered separately in subsection (b), include committing or offering to commit prostitution, promotion or aggravated promotion of prostitution, and knowingly transporting, receiving or securing a person for those purposes, all defined by reference to the Texas Penal Code.