Hempstead, NY Public Conduct: Public Urination (2026)

Section 77-9 sits in Chapter 77, Public Places, and was added April 25, 2017 by Local Law No. 31-2017 and amended June 5, 2018 by Local Law No. 51-2018. It folds urinating and defecating in public together with a long list of other disorderly acts: disobeying an officer's lawful order, using threatening or abusive language, throwing dangerous objects, fighting, and setting off fireworks in a Town facility. The urination and defecation clause carves out one exception: using an available public restroom. Because this is a Town Code provision, it governs the unincorporated areas and Town-controlled properties outside Hempstead's many incorporated villages, such as the Village of Hempstead, Freeport, Rockville Centre, Garden City, Lynbrook and Valley Stream, each of which enforces its own separate municipal code for conduct inside its own borders.

Enforcement inside the town's jurisdiction falls to Nassau County police officers, the Town of Hempstead Public Safety Department, and any other peace or law enforcement officer with authority in the area, as well as Town supervisory personnel identified under the section. Subsection A also states that each act committed during the same occurrence or series of occurrences counts as a separate and distinct disorderly conduct offense, so a person cited for urinating in public alongside another listed act, such as fighting or throwing an object, can face multiple counts arising from one encounter.

The section applies regardless of any other conflicting language elsewhere in the Town Code and stacks on top of, rather than replaces, any other applicable law a person may also be charged under.