Chatham County, GA Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Sec. 12-108 of the Code of Chatham County makes it unlawful for any person to knowingly possess an open container of an alcoholic beverage while operating a vehicle in the county, or while riding as a passenger in or on a vehicle being operated in the county. The ordinance defines an "open container" as any container from which the contents are immediately capable of being consumed, or any container whose seal has been broken, so a resealed can or an unfinished bottle both qualify. Possession attaches to the driver by default: an open container is treated as being in the driver's possession unless it is in a passenger's physical control or is stored in a locked glove compartment, a locked trunk, another locked non-passenger area, or a luggage compartment on a vehicle without a locked non-passenger area.

Three narrow exceptions apply: passengers riding under a paid transportation contract with a Georgia-licensed chauffeur, bus passengers riding with a chauffeur-licensed driver, and passengers in a self-contained motor home longer than 21 feet. Everyone else in the vehicle, driver or passenger, can be charged directly. The ordinance was adopted June 23, 1989, and sits in Chapter 12, Article I alongside the county's other traffic offenses, so it is enforced as a traffic-related misdemeanor rather than through the county's separate alcoholic-beverage licensing chapter (Chapter 17), which governs sales and consumption at licensed premises, not roadway possession.