Newton, MA Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

Section 20-52, in Article V of Chapter 20, reaches three distinct behaviors. First, it forbids anyone from behaving in a rude or disorderly manner or using indecent, profane or insulting language in any street, public place or public building in the city. Second, it bars remaining on a doorstep, portico or other projection from a building, or at a church, meetinghouse, public hall or its entrance, to the annoyance or disturbance of any person, the section's loitering clause: standing at someone's entrance so long that it bothers the occupant or passersby is itself the violation, without any further conduct required.

Third, it prohibits any game, sport or amusement in a city street that interrupts the free and safe use of the street by travelers, or that unreasonably annoys and disturbs residents of adjoining estates, covering everything from a game blocking traffic to a disturbance late at night. The ordinance dates to the 1973 Revised Ordinances, Section 14-3, and was renumbered as Section 20-3 in the 1995 Revised Ordinances, with no separate amendment since. c. 272, Sections 38 and 40, covering disturbance of public meetings, which the city ordinance supplements rather than duplicates.

Because the loitering clause is written around the annoyance or disturbance it causes, Newton police can act on a specific complaint from a building occupant or passerby rather than needing to observe additional misconduct beyond the lingering itself.