Everett, WA Public Conduct: Public Urination (2026)

EMC 10.24.200(A) states the rule in a single sentence: "A person is guilty of urinating in public if he intentionally urinates or defecates in a public place other than a wash room or toilet room." Subsection (B) sets the penalty: "Urinating in public is a misdemeanor, and may be punished by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars." The section sits within Chapter 10.24, Lewd Conduct and Related Offenses, and borrows that chapter's definition of "public place" from EMC 10.24.010(C): "an area generally visible to public view, and includes streets, sidewalks, bridges, alleys, plazas, parks, driveways, parking lots, automobiles (whether moving or not), buildings open to the general public, including those which serve food or drink or provide entertainment and the doorways and entrances to buildings or dwellings and the grounds enclosing them, and businesses contained in structures which can serve customers who remain in their vehicles, by means of a drive-up window." That broad definition reaches far beyond downtown sidewalks, covering parking lots, alleys and vehicle exteriors visible to public view.

As a general misdemeanor under EMC 10.04.080(B), the maximum penalty is a $1,000 fine or up to 90 days in jail, or both, and prosecution must generally begin within one year of the offense under EMC 10.04.070. A narrower, park-specific version of the same ban exists at EMC 9.06.146, which makes it an offense to urinate or defecate "in a city park in a place other than a wash room or toilet room"; that park-code version is enforced by park rangers and carries the park code's own misdemeanor penalty under EMC 9.06.240, while the citywide EMC 10.24.200 ban is enforced by Everett police anywhere else in the city that qualifies as a public place.