Washington County, WI Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Washington County Code § 172-9 prohibits consuming any alcohol beverage "in or upon any public property or public parking lot" anywhere in the county, defining public property broadly to include buildings and structures owned, leased or operated by the state or any political subdivision, public sidewalks, roadways, streets, playgrounds, parks and alleys, and defining a public parking lot as any area held out for parking whether publicly or privately owned. A second, related prohibition bars a customer who has just bought an alcohol beverage from a licensed premises, such as a tavern or restaurant, from stepping outside the property boundary lines of that premises to keep drinking; "licensed premises" is defined to exclude the parking lot, sidewalks, roadways or adjacent land within the property lines.

93, Wis. Stats. Because Washington County has no municipal police force outside the incorporated cities and villages, the Sheriff's Office is the practical enforcement agency in the eleven towns and on county property such as the Fair Park and county parks. Section 172-9 sets no penalty of its own, so a violation defaults to the county's standard forfeiture under § 1-5: not less than $10 nor more than $2,000, plus costs of prosecution, with jail time in default of payment capped at 90 days. This section sits in Chapter 172, Peace and Good Order, alongside the county's tavern closing-hours rule at § 172-10.