[HISTORY: Adopted by the Township Council of the Township of Bristol 9-20-1994 by Ord. No. 94-8. Amendments noted where applicable.]
A. 
The Township Council finds that there is a very real local need to regulate loitering and other disorderly practices and that there will be a significant factor in minimizing loitering and other disorderly practices within the Township and should continue to be updated and amplified in light of Bristol Township's local situation and facts.
B. 
Bristol Township is a stable family community. Individual responsibility for peaceful and lawful activity is the norm; legal sanctions to enforce such responsibility have had a demonstrated effectiveness over the years; as individual responsibility increases, the likelihood of loitering and disorderly practices decreases; and there is a need for a prohibition against loitering and disorderly practices which will achieve and will continue to achieve the public good, safety and welfare.
A. 
Loitering. A person is guilty of loitering if he, alone or with other persons, gathers for an unlawful or malicious purpose upon any public property or public right-of-way or around a dwelling house or any other place used wholly or in part for living or dwelling purposes belonging to or occupied by another. Notwithstanding anything contained herein to the contrary, loitering for purposes of this chapter specifically includes any of the following:
(1) 
Sleeping in a public place or on public property not intended for such purpose and without emergency;
(2) 
Gambling on any public property; or
(3) 
The gathering or congregation of two or more persons without a permit where such permit is lawfully required by another chapter of this Code, state statute or federal law.
B. 
Disorderly conduct. A person is guilty of disorderly conduct if, with intent to cause a public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm or recklessly creating a risk thereof, he does any of the following:
(1) 
Encourages, aids, abets or engages in fighting or threatening or in violent or tumultuous behavior;
(2) 
Makes unreasonable or unseemly noise so as to disturb peaceable residents;
(3) 
Uses obscene language or makes an obscene gesture; or
(4) 
Creates a hazardous or physically offensive condition by any act which serves no legitimate purpose of the actor.
C. 
Public. As used in this section, the word "public" means affecting or likely to affect persons in a place to which the public or a substantial group has access; among the places included are highways, transport facilities, schools, prisons, apartment houses, places of business or amusement, any neighborhood or any premises which are open to the public.
A. 
Any person who shall violate § 127-2A of this chapter or who shall aid, assist, encourage or abet any other person or persons in the commission of any of the acts prohibited by this chapter shall be guilty of a summary offense and, upon conviction thereof, may be required to pay a fine of up to $300 and, in default of payment of such fine and costs as may be imposed, shall be imprisoned in the county jail for a period of time not to exceed 30 days, provided that in any prosecutions upon any act prohibited by this chapter which can also be prosecuted under any provision of the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the penalty shall not exceed that sum provided for under the state statute.
B. 
Citations issued under this chapter shall specify the section and the time, date and place of the offense and sufficiently describe the offending conduct.
An offense under this chapter is a summary offense if the actor causes substantial harm or serious inconvenience or if he persists in loitering or disorderly conduct as those terms are defined herein after reasonable warning or request to desist.