Shreveport, LA Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

Shreveport's obstruction law is broad by design: Sec. 50-140(a) bars willfully obstructing the free, convenient and normal use of any public sidewalk, street, highway, bridge, alley, road, or other passageway, or the entrance, corridor or passage of any public building, structure, watercraft or ferry, by impeding, hindering, stifling, retarding or restraining traffic or passage. That reach covers a person camped across a sidewalk, a display blocking a doorway, or a crowd choking off a hallway in a public building, not just vehicles. Subsection (b) carves out a specific exception: barricades or other obstructions erected as a safety measure for construction, excavation, maintenance, repair or replacement work, and any barricade placed by a government officer or agent in the proper performance of duties, are not violations.

00 or imprisonment for not more than 60 days, or both. The section traces to Code of 1971 § 21-16 and was re-adopted by Ord. No. 40, 1989 (4-11-89), the same recodification that rewrote most of Chapter 50's public-order offenses. S. 1. Because the offense turns on willfulness, an officer must show the person intentionally impeded passage rather than merely being present in a crowded space; a stalled vehicle or an accidental blockage is not, by itself, enough to sustain a conviction.