Medford, OR Public Conduct: Public Urination (2026)

Section 5.125 of the Medford Code provides simply that no person shall urinate or defecate in public view or in a public place other than a restroom, and subsection (2) classifies the offense as a violation. That classification matters under Medford's tiered penalty structure in Section 5.990: offenses not classified as violations default to crimes carrying up to $1,000 in fines and up to a year in jail, but Section 5.990(2) caps a classified violation at a fine not exceeding $250 and specifies that conviction carries no criminal disability or legal disadvantage.

Section 5.125 sits within Chapter 5's general offenses article alongside related public-order provisions like disorderly conduct (5.120) and drinking in public (5.310), and it was last amended by Ordinance No. 2000-45 on March 16, 2000. The prohibition reaches both acts, urinating and defecating, and applies whenever the conduct occurs in public view, meaning it need not happen inside a designated public place if it is visible to others, or occurs in any public place lacking restroom privacy. Because the section does not carve out any exceptions for medical necessity or specific locations, enforcement in practice is handled by Medford Police citation, with the violation classification meaning a citation does not create a criminal record for the person cited, unlike many of Chapter 5's other offenses that remain crimes by default under Section 5.990(1).