Peoria County, IL Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Peoria County Code § 3-5 bars carrying alcoholic liquor in an unsealed or opened container away from the licensed premises where it was purchased. ) as amended, with state law controlling whenever it conflicts with the county chapter (§ 3-2). Section 3-5 has two halves: subsection (a) makes it unlawful for a patron to leave a licensed premises with liquor in an open or unsealed container, and subsection (b) makes it unlawful for the licensee or the licensee's proprietor, agent, servant or employee to knowingly let a patron do so, or to keep selling to a patron the licensee knows intends to carry liquor out unsealed.

Enforcement runs through the local liquor control commissioner, who under § 3-3 is the chairman of the county board (assisted by a three-member county liquor commission appointed to two-year terms), and through sheriff's deputies who cooperate under the county's animal- and liquor-code enforcement structure. Because this chapter governs only the unincorporated county, it does not reach bars or package stores inside Peoria, Chillicothe or Bartonville, each of which enforces its own municipal liquor code and open-container rules. The county's licensing scheme (§§ 3-16 through 3-24) creates classes A through L covering taverns, restaurants, package stores, hotels, clubs, veterans' organizations, golf courses, rental halls and catering, and § 3-5 applies across all of them: none of these license classes authorizes a patron to walk out the door with an unsealed drink.