De Pere, WI Public Conduct: Public Urination (2026)

Section 8-14 of the De Pere Code of Ordinances is a single, direct sentence: no person may urinate or defecate outside of any designated sanitary facility, on any sidewalk, street, alley, public parking lot or ramp, park, playground, cemetery or other public area, or on private property in open view of the public, or in the halls, rooms without restroom facilities, stairways or elevators of public or commercial buildings. The section was added by Ord. No. 10-13 in 2010 and sits in Chapter 8, the city's general offenses chapter, alongside loitering, curfew and littering provisions rather than as part of the alcohol licensing code, so it applies regardless of whether alcohol is involved.

The section has no penalty clause of its own, so enforcement falls to the citywide default in section 1-11(a): a forfeiture of not less than $1.00 nor more than $2,000.00 for a first offense, with a minimum $10.00 forfeiture on a second or subsequent violation under subsection (b). Section 1-11(c) confirms that no Code violation is treated as a misdemeanor and that imprisonment is not used as punishment except when a defendant fails to pay the imposed forfeiture, as allowed under Wis. Stats. § 800.95. Because the prohibition names private property in open view of the public alongside streets and parks, it reaches conduct on a front lawn or driveway that passers-by can see, not only conduct on land the city itself owns.