<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<baltimore-city-law heading="Part 1 – In General">
  <section prefix="§" num="27-1" heading="Definitions.">
    <para num="(a)" heading="Assignation.">The term “assignation” shall be construed to include:<para num="(1)">the making of any appointment or engagement for prostitution or lewdness; or</para>
      <para num="(2)">any act in furtherance of such appointment or engagement.</para>
    </para>
    <para num="(b)" heading="Lewdness.">The term “lewdness” shall be construed to mean any unnatural sexual practice.</para>
    <para num="(c)" heading="Prostitution.">The term “prostitution” shall be construed to mean the offering or receiving of the body for sexual intercourse for hire.</para>
    <para num="(d)" heading="Public place.">“Public place” means:<para num="(1)">any street, sidewalk, bridge, or alley or alleyway, plaza, park, driveway, parking lot, or transportation facility; or</para>
      <para num="(2)">a motor vehicle in or on any such place.</para>
    </para>
    <annotation type="Prior Codifications">City Code, 1976/83, art. 19, §58A(b)</annotation>
    <annotation type="History">Ord. 77-434</annotation>
    <annotation type="History">Ord. 79-1131</annotation>
    <annotation type="History">Ord.22-125</annotation>
  </section>
  <section prefix="§" num="27-2" heading="Legislative findings.">
    <text>The Mayor and City Council hereby finds and declares that:</text>
    <para num="(1)">loitering for the purpose of prostitution, lewdness, or assignation, patronizing, or promoting same is disruptive of the public peace in that certain persons engaged in such conduct in public places harass and interfere with the use and enjoyment by other persons of such public places thereby constituting a danger to the public health and safety; and</para>
    <para num="(2)">in recent years, the incidence of such conduct in public places has increased significantly in that persons aggressively engaging in promoting, patronizing, or soliciting for the purposes of prostitution, lewdness, or assignation have, by their course of conduct in public places, caused citizens who venture into such public places to be the unwilling victims of repeated harassment, interference, and assault upon their individual privacy, as a result of which such public places have become unsafe and the ordinary community and commercial life of certain neighborhoods has been disrupted and has deteriorated.</para>
    <annotation type="Prior Codifications">City Code, 1976/83, art. 19, §58A(a)</annotation>
    <annotation type="History">Ord. 77-434</annotation>
    <annotation type="History">Ord. 79-1131</annotation>
    <annotation type="History">Ord. 04-672</annotation>
  </section>
  <section prefix="§" num="27-3" heading="Prohibited conduct.">
    <text>It shall be unlawful for any person or persons, who are remaining, standing, loitering, or wandering about at any public place or place open or legally accessible to the public in such a manner as to beckon to, or repeatedly stop, or repeatedly attempt to engage passersby in conversation, or repeatedly stop or attempt to stop motor vehicles, or repeatedly interfere with the free passage of other persons, for the purpose or with the intention of either engaging in and/or promoting prostitution, lewdness, or assignation, to disobey a request by a police officer to move on.</text>
    <annotation type="Prior Codifications">City Code, 1976/83, art. 19, §58A(c)</annotation>
    <annotation type="History">Ord. 77-434</annotation>
    <annotation type="History">Ord. 79-1131</annotation>
    <annotation type="History">Ord. 94-315</annotation>
  </section>
  <section prefix="§" num="27-3.1" heading="Enforcement by citation.">
    <para num="(a)" heading="In general.">In addition to any other civil or criminal remedy or enforcement procedure, this subtitle may be enforced by issuance of a civil citation under City Code &lt;cite data-path="|1"&gt;Article 1&lt;/cite&gt;, Subtitle 41 {“Civil Citations”}.</para>
    <para num="(b)" heading="Method not exclusive.">The issuance of a civil citation to enforce this subtitle does not preclude pursuing any other civil or criminal remedy or enforcement action authorized by law.</para>
    <annotation type="History">Ord. 03-595</annotation>
  </section>
  <section prefix="§" num="27-4" heading="Penalties.">
    <text>Any person violating any of the provisions of this Part shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be subject to a fine of not more than $1,000 or imprisonment in jail not exceeding 12 months, or to both fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court.</text>
    <annotation type="Prior Codifications">City Code, 1976/83, art. 19, §58A(d)</annotation>
    <annotation type="History">Ord. 77-434</annotation>
    <annotation type="History">Ord. 79-1131</annotation>
    <annotation type="History">Ord. 85-568</annotation>
    <annotation type="History">Ord. 94-315</annotation>
  </section>
  <section prefix="§§" num="27-5 to 27-10" reserved="true" />
</baltimore-city-law>
