Bristol Township, PA Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

Chapter 127 of the Bristol Township Code was adopted by Township Council after it found a local need to regulate loitering and other disorderly practices, describing Bristol Township as a stable family community (§ 127-1). Under § 127-2A a person is guilty of loitering by gathering, alone or with other persons, for an unlawful or malicious purpose upon any public property or public right-of-way, or around a dwelling house or other place used wholly or in part for living purposes that belongs to or is occupied by another.

The ordinance names three acts that count as loitering: sleeping in a public place or on public property not intended for such purpose and without emergency, gambling on any public property, and the gathering of two or more persons without a permit where another chapter of the Code, a state statute or federal law requires one. Section 127-2B separately defines disorderly conduct: with intent to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or recklessly creating a risk of it, a person who fights or threatens, makes unreasonable or unseemly noise that disturbs peaceable residents, uses obscene language or an obscene gesture, or creates a hazardous or physically offensive condition with no legitimate purpose.

Public means affecting persons in a place the public or a substantial group has access to, including highways, transport facilities, schools, apartment houses, places of business or amusement and any neighborhood (§ 127-2C). Under § 127-4 the offense is a summary offense if the actor causes substantial harm or serious inconvenience or persists in loitering or disorderly conduct after reasonable warning or request to desist. A citation must specify the section and the time, date and place of the offense and describe the offending conduct (§ 127-3B).