Panhandlers in Statesville will now need a permit.

On Monday, the Statesville City Council passed an ordinance to regulate begging, panhandling or soliciting contributions.

"We've had a lot of complaints this summer about solicitors coming door to door. They seem this year to be more aggressive for whatever reason," Statesville police Chief David Onley said last month when the request was brought before the city council. "So one of the things staff and I started doing is looking into other cities around us, what are they doing, and we found that we were one of the rare ones that didn't have an ordinance in place requiring them to go through any type of permit process."

The ordinance requires anyone wishing to solicit funds in the Statesville city limits to obtain a permit from the polic

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