Taylorsville, UT Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

Section 10.30.010 of the Taylorsville City Code, in the disorderly conduct chapter, defines loitering through four separate scenarios. A person loiters if they appear at a place or time under circumstances warranting alarm for the safety of persons or property and, when a law enforcement official asks, fail to give a reasonably credible account of their identity, conduct or purpose. The same standard applies to loitering in or about a school without any relationship to a student or written permission, and to loitering in or about a building, lot, street or sidewalk under circumstances suggesting the person may be about to commit a crime.

The fourth and broadest scenario covers a person in any public area who remains, wanders idly, or prowls in a manner unusual for law abiding citizens, or who accosts others for the purpose of begging, and who then refuses a police officer's lawful command to move on after that officer determines the person's presence is causing a breach of the peace, obstruction, unreasonable disturbance, or interference with pedestrian or vehicular traffic. Section 10.30.010(B) provides a defense: no person may be convicted if the explanation they gave was true and, if believed by the officer at the time, would have dispelled the alarm.

Loitering is a Class C misdemeanor under subsection C. The ordinance defines a public area broadly to include any place open to the public, including shopping malls, public ways, streets, highways, alleys, and parks, so it reaches far beyond city sidewalks. Taylorsville Police officers enforce this section citywide.