Lafayette, LA Public Conduct: Public Urination (2026)

Sec. 62-90 criminalizes both halves of the same act: subsection (a) defines urination in public as "the willful and intentional urination by a person in a public place, in a place not intended for such purposes or in a place open to the public view," and subsection (b) defines defecation in public in identical terms. Subsection (c) makes either act a misdemeanor. The "willful and intentional" requirement means an accident or a medical emergency does not satisfy the offense -- the person must mean to do it.

The section sits in Chapter 62's "Offenses and Miscellaneous Provisions" article, alongside related public-order crimes such as obscenity (Sec. 62-55), which separately criminalizes intentionally exposing a sex organ in public with intent to arouse, and Peeping Tom (Sec. 62-56). Sec. 62-90 traces back to City Code 1965 Sec. 10-90, making it one of Lafayette's older public-conduct ordinances, and unlike some neighboring sections it states no fine or jail term of its own. That silence means a conviction is punished under the Code's default rule, Sec.

00, imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both, with each day of a continuing violation treated as a separate offense -- though a single act of public urination or defecation is ordinarily charged once, not as a continuing violation.