We pulled up to a stop light - the guy there had a typical gegging sing. As soon as he flipped it to "Why lie about it, I want $ to buy beer," hands with money appeared from a couple of car windows n front of us.

a couple bucks.

Just within the last year there seem to be more of them. Sometimes I stop and give them a few bucks.

One young girl I did not give any $ to, she was holding a sign that said "need help paying bills" and seemed decently dressed.

Saw another young girl holding a sign asking for $ for baby diapers. I gave her 5 bucks, that's all I had on me.

Sometimes the person looks pretty rough. Those are the ones I give $ to. They are always so appreciative. I wish there was more help out there for these folks. If we can come up with $ for a military parade and $ to pay for Trump to golf every weekend.....

It was a professional sign that they stake in the ground that he had appropriated for his own use. If I had been able I would have given him a few bucks.

In Arizona, I've noticed an increase in the number of beggars and homeless around vacant buildings and on street corners. Some are disabled, a lot of men, and some young people. I saw a guy with a sign "homeless brothers, need help". I was in the wrong lane so could not give them a couple of bucks. I usually give out $5 gift cards to places that sell food.

I've also made note of the race/ethinicity of the people in need I see on street or begging on corners. I would say that the majority are white males. There are some women, Hispanics, African Americans, Native Americans, and Asians. But I would say that the split is 80% white, 20% minority. What have others seen? Since the orange monster was installed in the WH, I have become more aware of the demographics of people in need.

And most of them have done it a long time if you see a sign like that.

They also know that if they have dogs with them they will get substantially more.

In the right area someone with a good sign and a dog can easily pull in from 50 to several hundred dollars a day on a good day at the right intersection.

We had one couple in my area who did almost nothing but panhandle for years. They had an apartment, car, etc. and lived better than a lot of people who worked. And were offered jobs several times that I know of and either turned them down or worked only briefly then quit. I was told by another officer they told her they worked just enough to max out their EITC and other benefits they needed to show some income for, but not enough to jeapodize other benefits they got. They had it down to a science and were proud of it.

They lived one county over, but made sure to do all the panhandling outside their home county.

They actually were eventually busted for, of all things, food stamp fraud. The PD for the their favorite city to “work” in got so many complaints about them they started looking for anything they could do and eventually documented that the lifestyle they lived was impossible with the income they claimed because they were, of course, not reporting a dime of the panhandling income. Turned them in to the state. They actually had evidence of a lot of other fraud too but only the SNAP got prosecuted.

They ended up moving to FL after that, I’m sure to start the same thing.