Passaic County, NJ Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

" The section ties directly to Article II, Section 11's park-hours rule, which sets the default open period as "daily from sunrise until sunset" while allowing the County to extend closing hours by resolution for specific days or periods. Together the two sections mean an individual found on county park land before sunrise or after sunset (or after any extended closing time the County has posted) is presumptively an unauthorized loiterer under Section 10, unless part of a group that secured written permission in advance.

The prohibition is county-wide under Article I, Section 1(b), reaching every park, parkway, playground and golf course the County owns, leases, maintains or controls, not one specific location. Article I, Section 1(a)(5) confirms that any act the ordinance otherwise forbids, including after-hours presence, becomes lawful once done under and in compliance with a County-issued permit. Enforcement runs through the ordinance's standard scheme: Article I, Section 1(c) sends complaints to "the Municipal Court having jurisdiction over the territory wherein the violation shall have occurred," and the penalty section allows imprisonment not exceeding ninety days, a fine not exceeding two hundred dollars, or both, on conviction, with automatic revocation of any permit the violator holds.