Bossier Parish, LA Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Section 6-5 of the Bossier Parish Code makes it unlawful for any person to drink, consume, or possess alcoholic beverages in an open container inside a private motor vehicle while that vehicle is on the public roads, streets, parks, and highways of unincorporated Bossier Parish. The ordinance also reaches the vehicle owner, or the driver if the owner is not present, making it unlawful to knowingly keep or allow an open container to be kept in the vehicle under the same circumstances. The Police Jury built in one exception: alcohol stored in the trunk.

In vehicles without a trunk, such as station wagons, campers, and recreational vehicles, the open container must sit somewhere other than the area normally occupied by the driver or passengers. A glove compartment or other utility compartment does not qualify as outside that area; the code treats it as part of the driver and passenger space, so alcohol stored there still violates the section. The Sheriff's deputies enforce Section 6-5 on parish roads outside Bossier City, Benton, Haughton, and Plain Dealing, which police their own municipal codes.

The provision traces back to Code 1975, Section 14:300, and carries its own penalty clause separate from the parish's general alcohol permit and local-option articles found earlier in Chapter 6.