[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:
One's residence, home or place.
A person committing any act.
Any bodily movement, whether voluntary or involuntary.
An attempt or offer, with unlawful force or violence, to hurt or
do physical injury to another.
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.
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.
Any violation of public order as amounts to a disturbance of the
general community.
Any act, action or omission and its accompanying state of mind.
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.
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.
Any person who appears under the influence of alcohol or any intoxicating
beverages not therapeutically administered.
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.
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.
To hamper, delay, hold back, impede or prevent action.
Any act morally offensive or tending to debauch the morals.
To intentionally hinder or be in opposition to, or to come into collision
with.
An impairment of mental or physical capacities resulting from the
influence of alcohol, narcotics or other drugs.
Anything that is wanton, lustful, vulgar or obscene.
To provide temporary quarters for, or to establish or settle in a
place.
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.
Naked.
To render impassable with unreasonable hazard and inconvenience.
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.
Failure to act; something neglected or left undone.
Any natural person and, where relevant, includes a corporation, partnership
or unincorporated association.
Lewd or vulgar.
Any vehicle used in the general conveyance of passengers for a fee.
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.
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.
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.
All fines imposed and collected under and by virtue of this chapter
shall be paid into the treasury of the Borough of Shrewsbury.
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.
