The Lowdown on Saggy Pants: Fines Can Go as High as $500

The latest town to ban saggy pants is a Chicago suburb that requires $25 fines for exposure of more than three inches of underwear.

Suburban Lynwood seeks to keep pants high with a fine that is relatively low, the Chicago Tribune reports. The penalty for saggy pants is $150 in Riviera Beach, Fla., and $500 in Flint, Mich., where the interim police chief has declared that underwear-revealing pants can constitute disorderly conduct.

The saggy pants ban in Riviera Beach was the result of a referendum that received the support of 72 percent of the voters, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.

The American Civil Liberties Union warns that ordinances targeting saggy pants should not be used to also target minority youths. Said ACLU spokesman Edwin Yohnka in a Tribune interview, "Let's see if they start pulling over plumbers for their pants.”