Southfield, MI Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

Southfield City Code § 9.129, Loitering in or about buildings, targets loitering inside the indoor common areas of commercial and public buildings rather than outdoor public ways. It is unlawful for anyone to linger, loiter, sit or stand in any public room in any hotel, motel, office or business establishment in the city, or any court house corridor, to use a public room for business or social purposes unrelated to the premises, or to obstruct a business entrance, if the person is not there for a lawful purpose or is acting against the express wishes of the building's owner, lessee, managing agent, or person in charge.

The section defines public room expansively to reach any basement, attic, building entrance or doorway, lobby, hallway, stairway, mezzanine, elevator, foyer, public restroom, or sitting room used in common by the public, tenants, occupants, guests or customers inside a hotel, motel, office building, public building, parking lot or business establishment in the city. That sweeps in office-tower lobbies and Southfield Town Center's interior common areas as well as smaller storefronts. The section sits in Chapter 114, Public Peace and Welfare, alongside the separate outdoor loitering rule in § 9.130 and the disorderly-conduct provisions of § 9.122.

Because § 9.129 does not state its own penalty, the general Code penalty in § 1.15 applies: a fine of up to $500, imprisonment of up to 90 days, or both, with each day of a continuing violation a separate offense. Southfield Police Department officers can respond when a person with no lawful purpose there has been asked to leave by a manager or owner and refuses.