West Covina, CA Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

Section 19-4 of the municipal code, carried forward from the 1960 Code, splits the loitering prohibition into two distinct offenses. Subsection (a) targets general street and sidewalk loitering: it is unlawful to loiter or stand in or upon any public street, alley, sidewalk or crosswalk, or otherwise occupy any portion of a public way open for pedestrian travel, in a manner that unreasonably annoys or molests a pedestrian or obstructs free passage. Subsection (b) is narrower and applies specifically to entrances: no one may loiter, stand or sit in or at the entrance of a church, hall, theater, moving picture theater, or other place of public assemblage so as to block that entrance.

The section sits in Chapter 19, Article I (In General), alongside the city's picketing and mass-demonstration ban in Section 19-3 and the sit-lie rule in Section 19-5, all enforced by the West Covina Police Department as street-obstruction offenses. Because the ordinance is keyed to interference with pedestrian passage or an assembly entrance rather than mere presence, officers must show the person's conduct actually annoyed, molested or obstructed someone; standing still without impeding anyone is not, by the plain text, a violation. The rule dates to the 1960 Code section 4109 and has not been substantively amended since.