Start with the fact most articles on this subject get wrong: Denver has no general loitering ordinance. Chapter 38 of the Denver Revised Municipal Code, which holds the city’s criminal offenses, contains no section making it an offense to linger in a public place. If someone tells you that you were cited for loitering in Denver, the summons names some other provision, and identifying which one is the first thing your defense turns on.
Colorado’s only loitering crime is narrow, and it is probably not the one you are thinking of.
The Colorado Loitering Statute Is About Schools
C.R.S. 18-9-112 defines “loiter” broadly: “to be dilatory, to stand idly around, to linger, delay, or wander about, or to remain, abide, or tarry in a public place.” That definition, standing alone, describes most people on most days. It is the rest of the statute that does the work.
Under subsection (2), a person commits a petty offense only if all of the following are true. The person loiters in a school building, on school grounds, or within one hundred feet of school grounds. Persons under the age of eighteen are present in the building or on the grounds. The person acts with intent to interfere with or disrupt the school program, or with intent to interfere with or endanger schoolchildren. The person has no custody of or responsibility for a pupil and no other specific, legitimate reason for being there. And the person has been asked to leave by a school administrator, the administrator’s representative, or a peace officer.
Every one of those is an element. A parent waiting for a child has a reason for being there. A person who was never asked to leave has not committed the offense no matter how long they stood there. Subsection (4) says the general assembly enacted the provision to protect children required to attend school, which is the interest the statute is confined to serving.
Subsection (3) adds an affirmative defense: it is a defense that the defendant’s acts were lawful and he was exercising his rights of lawful assembly as part of a peaceful and orderly petition for the redress of grievances, in the course of a labor dispute or otherwise. Picketing outside a school is the situation that provision was written for.
Why People Expect a Denver Ordinance
Colorado grants its municipalities broad authority in this area. C.R.S. 31-15-401(1)(h) empowers a city “to restrain and punish loiterers, mendicants, and prostitutes.” Many Colorado cities have used that power. Denver, in its current code, has not, and the sections in Chapter 38 where such an ordinance would sit are marked reserved.
The authority to pass one is not the same as having passed one. A charge has to name an offense that exists.
What a Denver Loitering Accusation Is Usually Charged As
When Denver police act on conduct a complaining party calls loitering, the citation typically issues under one of these provisions of the Denver Revised Municipal Code.
D.R.M.C. § 38-86, obstruction of streets or other public passageways. It is unlawful to knowingly obstruct a highway, street, sidewalk, building entrance, elevator, aisle, stairway, hallway, or other place used for the passage of persons or vehicles, or to disobey a reasonable order to move issued by a peace officer, firefighter, or person with authority to control the premises. The ordinance defines “obstruct” as “to render impassable or to render passage unreasonably inconvenient or hazardous,” which is a higher bar than being in the way, and it provides an affirmative defense where the obstruction was authorized by a permit.
D.R.M.C. § 38-86.1, sitting or lying down in the public right-of-way. This one is bounded three ways: it reaches only the Downtown Denver Business Improvement District, whose boundaries the ordinance lists street by street, only the hours between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m., and only knowing conduct. Outside those boundaries or those hours, it does not apply.
D.R.M.C. § 38-86.2, unauthorized camping on public or private property.
D.R.M.C. § 38-115, trespass. This is the usual charge where the location is private property and the person stayed after being told to leave.
D.R.M.C. § 38-89, disturbance of the peace.
Each has different elements, and the defenses that work against one do not transfer to another. This is why the specific ordinance number on the summons matters more than the word anyone used at the scene.
What This Means for a Defense
Three questions come first in any Denver case of this kind.
What provision was actually charged? Read the summons for the section number rather than the label. If the citation names a loitering ordinance, the charge is defective on its face.
Are all the elements present? The verified provisions above each carry limits that are easy to miss: the obstruction ordinance requires that passage be rendered impassable, unreasonably inconvenient, or hazardous; the sitting ordinance requires a specific geography and a specific time window; the state statute requires school grounds, a child present, an intent, and a request to leave.
Was the encounter itself lawful? A citation that follows a stop with no reasonable suspicion is vulnerable regardless of what the conduct looked like. Presence in a public place is not a crime, and the constitutional questions about the stop often outrun the ordinance questions about the conduct.
If you have been cited in Denver for conduct someone described as loitering, the attorneys at Masterson Hall can read the summons against the ordinance it names. Contact us to discuss your case. General information about this area of our practice is on our loitering page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is loitering a crime in Denver?
Not as such. Denver’s municipal code contains no general loitering offense. Conduct described as loitering is charged under other ordinances, most often obstruction of a public passageway under D.R.M.C. § 38-86 or trespass under § 38-115.
Is loitering a crime under Colorado law?
Only in one setting. C.R.S. 18-9-112(2) makes it a petty offense to loiter in or within one hundred feet of a school, while children are present, with intent to interfere with the school program or endanger schoolchildren, without a legitimate reason to be there, after being asked to leave.
Can I be charged for standing in a public place?
Standing in a public place is not itself an offense. A charge requires something more: obstructing passage, remaining on private property after being told to leave, the specific downtown sitting and lying prohibition during its hours, or the school-specific state statute with all its elements.
Do loitering rules differ in other Colorado cities?
Yes, and substantially. C.R.S. 31-15-401(1)(h) lets each municipality legislate in this area, so an ordinance that exists in one city may have no counterpart in the next. What is lawful in Denver is not a safe guide to what is lawful in Aurora or Lakewood.
What are the penalties?
They depend entirely on which provision was charged. The state school-loitering offense under C.R.S. 18-9-112 is a petty offense. Denver municipal violations are prosecuted in Denver County Court and carry the penalties the code sets for the section charged, which is another reason to identify the section before assuming anything about exposure.