Waynesville, MO Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

Section 210.110, carried forward from Ordinance No. 145, bundles three distinct offenses under one heading: unconsented trespass, window-peeping, and molesting a female person in public. The trespass clause reaches anyone who enters another person's premises without the consent of the owner, lessee, or tenant, or who interferes with the privacy of persons inside, including conduct "commonly known as window-peeping." A separate clause bars molesting "any female person by whistling, improper advances or otherwise interfering with the peaceful and unmolested use" of streets, businesses, or other public places by that person.

The loitering piece sits in the section's second paragraph and is narrower than a general anti-loitering law: anyone found loitering around windows or openings of a premises where people are living, without a good and valid excuse, is presumed under the ordinance to have been unlawfully trying to view or molest the residents inside, and that presumption alone is enough to support arrest and prosecution. Waynesville does not need to prove actual peeping or contact to charge under this clause; a person caught lingering near a residential window at night with no legitimate reason for being there falls under the presumption.

The section does not set a curfew or a distance requirement for loitering near a window, and it does not extend to loitering in commercial areas or on public sidewalks generally, that ground being covered instead by Section 210.130's separate vagrancy provision. Because the section is silent on a specific fine, prosecution proceeds as a misdemeanor under Waynesville's general penalty provision.