[HISTORY: Adopted by the Mayor and Council of the Borough of Shrewsbury 5-13-1971 by Ord. No. 306 (Ch. 59 of the 1973 Code); amended in its entirety 3-9-1998 by Ord. No. 743. Subsequent amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Police Department — See Ch. 39.
Alarm systems — See Ch. 59.
Alcoholic beverages — See Ch. 63.
Bicycles — See Ch. 72.
Animals — See Ch. 67.
Firearms — See Ch. 106.
Fire hydrants — See Ch. 110.
Hawking, peddling and canvassing — See Ch. 132.
Hours of business — See Ch. 139.
Nuisances — See Ch. 163.
Parks and recreational facilities — See Ch. 170.
Solid waste — See Ch. 210.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:
ABODE
One's residence, home or place.
ACTOR
A person committing any act.
ACT or ACTION
Any bodily movement, whether voluntary or involuntary.
ASSAULT
An attempt or offer, with unlawful force or violence, to hurt or do physical injury to another.
BATTERY
The actual doing of an unlawful hurt, however slight; an unlawful laying of hands upon the person of another, no matter how light the touch.
BOROUGH ENFORCEMENT OFFICER
Any person who is, by virtue of authority vested in him or her by the Mayor and Council of the Borough of Shrewsbury, required to enforce any of the laws, codes and regulations of the Borough of Shrewsbury.
BREACH OF THE PEACE
Any violation of public order as amounts to a disturbance of the general community.
CONDUCT
Any act, action or omission and its accompanying state of mind.
DISORDERLY CONDUCT
Those acts or omissions that tend to breach the peace or cause a risk thereof, which include, but are not limited to, any of the following: fighting; violent behavior; unreasonable noise; offensive or coarse utterances, gestures or displays; the addressing of abusive language to another or the creation of a hazard or physically offensive condition; or any act or omission that tends to endanger the morals, safety or health of the community or a class of persons or a family.
DISORDERLY HOUSE
Any house, building or structure where acts are performed that tend to corrupt the morals of the community or to promote a breach of the peace, or any place kept for the purpose of public resort for thieves, drunkards, prostitutes or other idle and vicious people, whether there is any actual disturbance of the public peace or quiet and includes any place where unlawful and illegal practices are habitually carried on.
DRUNKENNESS
Any person who appears under the influence of alcohol or any intoxicating beverages not therapeutically administered.
DWELLING
Any building or structure, though movable and temporary, or a portion thereof, which is for the time being a person's home or place of lodging.
FIREARM
Any pistol, revolver, rifle, shotgun, machine gun, automatic and semiautomatic rifle, or any gun or device or instrument in the nature of a weapon from which may be fired or ejected a solid projectile, ball, slug or pellet.
HINDER
To hamper, delay, hold back, impede or prevent action.
INDECENCY
Any act morally offensive or tending to debauch the morals.
INTERFERENCE
To intentionally hinder or be in opposition to, or to come into collision with.
INTOXICATION
An impairment of mental or physical capacities resulting from the influence of alcohol, narcotics or other drugs.
LEWD
Anything that is wanton, lustful, vulgar or obscene.
LODGE
To provide temporary quarters for, or to establish or settle in a place.
LOITER
Being without any visible and lawful business or purpose and without being able to give a satisfactory account of oneself. This shall also include prowling or being in a place at a time not usual for individuals, under circumstances that warrant alarm for the safety of persons and/or property in the vicinity.
NUDE
Naked.
OBSTRUCT
To render impassable with unreasonable hazard and inconvenience.
OFFENSIVE WEAPON
Any bomb, machine gun, sawed-off shotgun or firearm specially made or specially adapted for concealment or silent discharge, or any blackjack, sandbag, metal knuckles, dagger or other implement for the infliction of serious bodily harm which serves no common lawful purpose.
OMISSION
Failure to act; something neglected or left undone.
PERSON
Any natural person and, where relevant, includes a corporation, partnership or unincorporated association.
PROFANE
Lewd or vulgar.
PUBLIC CONVEYANCE
Any vehicle used in the general conveyance of passengers for a fee.
QUASI-PUBLIC PLACE
Any place, privately owned, but to which the public is invited, which shall include, but not be limited to, the following: commercial, industrial and business properties, stores, restaurants, bars, retail business establishments and their adjoining or related parking areas.
WEAPON
Any item readily capable of lethal use and possessed under circumstances not manifestly appropriate for lawful uses which it may have; the term includes a firearm which is not loaded or lacks a clip or other component to render it immediately operable, and components which can readily be assembled into a weapon.
A. 
No person shall, within the limits of said Borough, appear on any street, road, avenue, park, lake, pond or any other body of water, or any other public or quasi-public place, in a state of nudity or in any indecent or lewd dress, or make any indecent exposure of the person or commit or do any lewd or indecent act, or perform any indecent, immoral or lewd play or representation.
B. 
No person shall, within the limits of said Borough, perform any of the acts aforementioned in Subsection A above in or on any private property within the limits of said Borough, that may be offensive to, or to the annoyance of, any passing person or person lawfully therein, whether the actor has or has not the permission of the owner or responsible person in charge of said property.
C. 
No person shall urinate or defecate in any public or quasi-public place.
A. 
No person shall, within the limits of said Borough, keep or maintain a disorderly house, or allow or permit any house, shop, store or other building or structure owned or occupied by him or her to be used as a disorderly house.
B. 
No person shall, within the limits of said Borough, permit any house, shop, store or other building or structure owned or occupied by him or her to be frequented or resorted to by drunkards, intoxicated persons, riotous or disorderly persons or by prostitutes, gamblers or vagrants, or to become riotous or disorderly at any time to the annoyance of others.
No person shall, within the limits of said Borough, make or continue, or cause to be made or continued, or permit any unnecessary noise, either physical, mechanical, electrical or electronic, which shall disturb the comfort, rest or repose of any person or persons being in his or her or their place or places of abode.
No person shall, within the limits of said Borough, sweep, discard, deposit, throw or leave any wastepaper, tin cans, bottles, garbage or refuse of any kind whatsoever in or upon any parking place, street, road, avenue, park or other public place, or upon any empty lot or vacant fields or other premises, except in receptacles or containers provided for such purpose. Nothing contained herein shall be construed to prohibit the placing of leaves, branches and other natural debris at the curbline for Borough disposal.
[1]
Editor's Note: See also Ch. 215, Stormwater Quality, Art. I, Yard Waste Collection Program.
No person shall, within the limits of said Borough, use or operate, or cause to be used or operated, a loudspeaker, sound wagon, public-address system or other similar sound-producing device or apparatus in, on, about or near any public street, highway, park, building or other public place, without first making written application to and obtaining the permission of the Mayor and Council, said application to set forth the name and address of the applicant and of the person who is to operate the said loudspeaker, sound wagon, public-address system or other similar sound-producing device or apparatus, the purpose for which the same is to be employed, the specific time it will be in use and the approximate proposed range of audibility of the apparatus sought to be used. The Mayor and Council shall thereupon cause an investigation to be made and, if satisfied that the granting of the permit will not constitute a nuisance or be inimical to the peace, good order or quiet of the Borough, shall issue a written permit to the applicant. No person shall use or operate any such loudspeaker, sound wagon, public-address system or other sound-producing device or apparatus in such a manner that its range of audibility shall be greater than that named in the application for its use.
A. 
No person shall revel, quarrel, fight, brawl or otherwise engage in any disorderly conduct so as to disturb the public peace and quiet.
B. 
No person shall molest, obstruct, interfere with or prevent free access by members of the public or officers and employees of said Borough in or around any public buildings, or obstruct the corridors, stairways or doorways to and in said buildings; and no person shall, by his presence or by means either alone or in consort with others, interfere with or interrupt the conduct of business or official meetings in the offices or meeting rooms located in any such buildings.
A. 
No person shall, within the limits of said Borough, enter any school, church, public or quasi-public building or structure, or the premises on which the same is situated, and break, injure, mar, deface, remove or destroy any property, real or personal, located in or upon the same, and no person shall disturb, annoy or interfere with any classes, exercises, devotions, ceremonies or public meetings, or any person participating or engaging therein, on, in or about any school, church or other public or quasi-public building, structure or place.
B. 
No person shall, within the limits of said Borough, disturb the quiet and peace of any public library, reading room or other public building.
A. 
No person shall, within the limits of said Borough, maliciously destroy, damage or injure any property not one's own.
B. 
No person shall, within the limits of said Borough, open, injure, destroy, deface, mutilate, break or tamper with any fire hydrant.
C. 
No person shall, within the limits of said Borough, in any way injure, destroy, break, mutilate, deface or tamper with any streetlight, utility pole, fixture or any part thereof.
No person shall, within the limits of said Borough, paste, write, clip, paint, print, nail, clamp or otherwise fasten, inscribe or affix any notice, placard or advertisement against or upon any way, gate, house, store, shop, shed, fence, rock, stump, tree, shrub, bush, building, structure or utility pole without the consent of the owner or occupant of the same and in accordance with other ordinances of the Borough.
A. 
No person shall, within the limits of said Borough, hinder or obstruct any Borough enforcement officer in the performance of his duties, nor shall any person knowingly resist or oppose any officer or person authorized by law in serving, or attempting to serve, any writ, order or process, or knowingly resist or oppose any police officer when making an arrest either with or without a warrant.
B. 
No person shall obstruct or prevent any municipal employee from performing his or her duties either by force or threat of force. No person shall physically obstruct a municipal employee from performing his or her duties in person or by other means.
A. 
No person shall, within the limits of said Borough, by word, act, deed or other means, willfully and maliciously give or cause to be given a false fire, police or first-aid alarm. Nor shall any person willfully and maliciously destroy or injure any other apparatus of any fire, police or first-aid alarm system.
B. 
No person shall, within the limits of said Borough, during an alarm of fire or first aid, hinder, prevent or deter by any device whatsoever any fireman, first-aid man or policeman or other person from rendering lawful assistance in abating or quelling such fire or providing first-aid assistance, or hinder or interfere with any fireman, first-aid man or policeman from going to or returning from the place where any building, structure or other property is on fire or from which a fire or first-aid alarm proceeds; nor shall any person hinder or obstruct the passage of any fire engine, hook or ladder truck or any other fire apparatus or any type of ambulance in going to or from the place from which an alarm of fire or first-aid proceeds or where any building or other property may be burning.
A. 
No person shall, within the limits of said Borough, be intoxicated or drunk and disorderly in any street, highway, thoroughfare, public or quasi-public place, or in any private house, or in any hotel, boardinghouse, store, restaurant or other place, to the annoyance of any person or persons lawfully therein.
B. 
No person shall, within the limits of said Borough, in any public or quasi-public place, drink or have under his possession or control any intoxicating beverage while in attendance, as a spectator or otherwise, at any place where an interscholastic or other type of athletic event or contest is taking place.
C. 
It shall be unlawful for any person under the age of 21 years of age to knowingly possess or consume any alcoholic beverage or beer in any motor vehicle, public or quasi-public place, or in any private place within the limits of said Borough.
D. 
No person shall possess any open container containing alcoholic beverages in any public place or parking lot of a quasi-public place.
Each and every person violating any of the provisions of this chapter shall, upon conviction, be subject to a fine of not less than $50 nor more than $1,250, a term of imprisonment not exceeding 90 days or a period of community service not exceeding 90 days, or any combination thereof.