(a) The mayor and council find that the increase in aggressive solicitation throughout the city has become extremely disturbing and disruptive to residents and businesses, and has contributed not only to the loss of access to, and enjoyment of, public places, but has also led to an increased sense of fear intimidation and disorder.
(b) Aggressive solicitation may include, without limitation: approaching or following pedestrians; approaching or following children repeating solicitations despite refusals; using abusive or profane language to cause fear and intimidation; causing unwanted physical contact; or intentionally blocking pedestrian and vehicular traffic. The mayor and council further find that the presence of individuals who solicit money from persons at or near banks, automated teller machines, or in public transportation vehicles is especially troublesome because of the enhanced fear of crime in those confined environments. Such solicitation carries with it an implicit threat to both persons and property, as well as public safety.
(c) The law is not intended to limit any person from exercising the constitutional right to solicit funds, picket, protest or engage in other constitutionally protected activity. Rather, its goal is to protect citizens from the fear and intimidation accompanying certain kinds of solicitation that have become an unwelcome and overwhelming presence in the city.
(d) Solicit means to request an immediate donation of money or other thing of value from another person, regardless of the solicitor's purpose or intended use or the money or other thing of value. The solicitation may be, without limitation, by the spoken, written or printed word, or by other means of communication.
(e) Aggressive manner means and includes:
(1) Intentionally or recklessly making physical contact with or touching another person in the course of the solicitation without the person's consent;
(2) Approaching or following the person being solicited, if that conduct is intended to or is likely to: a) cause a reasonable person to fear imminent bodily harm or the commission of a criminal act upon the property in the person's possession; or (b) intimidate the person being solicited into responding affirmatively to the solicitation;
(3) Continuing to solicit within five (5) feet of the person being solicited after the person has made a negative response, if continuing the solicitation is intended to or is likely to: a) cause a reasonable person to fear imminent bodily harm or the commission of a criminal act upon property in the person's possession; or (b) intimidate the person being solicited into responding affirmatively to the solicitation;
(4) Intentionally or recklessly blocking the safe or free passage of the person being solicited or requiring the person, or the driver or a vehicle, to take evasive action to avoid physical contact with the person making the solicitation. Acts authorized as an exercise of one's constitutional right to picket or legally protest, and acts authorized by a permit issued pursuant to chapter 7 of the Tucson City Code, shall not constitute obstruction of pedestrian or vehicular traffic;
(5) Intentionally or recklessly using obscene or abusive language or gestures intended to or likely to: a) cause a reasonable person to fear imminent bodily harm or the commission of a criminal act upon property in the person's possession; or b) words intended to or reasonably likely to intimidate the person into responding affirmatively to the solicitation.
(f) Automated teller machine means a device, linked to a financial institution's account records, which is able to carry out transactions, including, but not limited to: account transfers, deposits, cash withdrawals, balance inquiries, and/or mortgage and loan payments.
(g) Automated teller machine facility means the area comprised of one or more automatic teller machines, and any adjacent space which is made available to banking customers after regular business hours.
(h) Check cashing business means any person duly licensed by the superintendent of banks to engage in the business of cashing checks, drafts or money orders for consideration pursuant to the provisions of the banking laws.
(i) Public area means an area to which the public or a substantial group of persons has access, and includes, but is not limited to, alleys, bridges, buildings, driveways, parking lots, parks, playgrounds, plazas, sidewalks, and streets open to the general public, and the doorways and entrances to buildings and dwellings, and the grounds enclosing them.
(Ord. No. 8674, §§ 1, 2, 4-8-96; Ord. No. 8891, § 1, 9-15-97)
Editors Note: Ordinance No. 8674, § 1, deleted § 11-33 in its entirety. Formerly, such section pertained to loitering and derived from ch. 18, § 24 of the 1953 Code; Ord. No. 3094, § 1, 3-11-68; Ord. No. 3599, § 1, 1-25-71. Subsequently, section 2 of same ordinance added a new § 11-33 pertaining to legislative findings; definitions.