Battle Creek, MI Public Conduct: Public Urination (2026)

Section 618.18, Urination or Defecation in Public, is one sentence: no person shall urinate or defecate in any public place or on private property without the consent of the owner or occupant thereof. Two settings are covered. The first is any public place, with no consent defense written into the text. The second is private property, where the act is lawful only with the consent of the owner or occupant.

Public place is defined by the City Commission in Section 618.01(f) as any street, alley, park, public building or place of business or assembly open to or frequented by the public, or any other place which is open to the public view or to which the public has access. That definition reaches shopping lots, parks and alleys as well as sidewalks, and it reaches private lots the public can enter.

The conduct also appears as a building block of other Chapter 618 rules. Section 618.01(e) lists public urination or defecation among the conditions that turn a gathering into a public nuisance. Section 618.05 separately prohibits immoral exhibition or indecent exposure, carrying a misdemeanor penalty of not more than ninety days or $500.

Section 618.18 prints no penalty of its own, so Section 618.99 supplies it. That section makes a violation of any provision of the chapter a misdemeanor and provides for a fine of not more than one hundred dollars ($100.00), or imprisonment of not more than 90 days, or both, for each offense. A separate offense is deemed committed each day a violation occurs or continues. Public toilet entrances also carry a 15-foot loitering buffer under Section 618.34(d)(1).