Orem, UT Public Conduct: Public Urination (2026)

Orem City Code Section 9-2-8, titled Befouling public places, states plainly that it is unlawful for any person to urinate or defecate in any public place or on private property where the act is open to public view. The provision dates to Ordinance No. 661, revised April 10, 1990, and has not been amended since. It sits in Article 9-2, Miscellaneous Offenses, immediately after Section 9-2-7's hotel and lodging register requirements and immediately before Section 9-2-9's noise and disturbing-the-peace rules. Because the section reaches acts on private property that are open to public view, it is not limited to streets, parks, or sidewalks; a backyard act visible from a neighboring yard or the street can still violate the section if it is exposed to public view.

Chapter 9 does not attach a unique penalty clause to Section 9-2-8 itself, so a violation is prosecuted under the general criminal offense classification that applies to Chapter 9 misdemeanor-level offenses absent a specified different classification, meaning it is charged and cited by the Orem Police Department like the chapter's other unclassified miscellaneous offenses such as littering under Section 9-2-6. The section works alongside Utah's broader public nuisance and lewdness statutes but stands as Orem's own local ordinance specifically targeting the bodily-function conduct, distinct from the separate public indecency ordinance at Section 9-2-10, which instead targets nudity and genital exposure or fondling in public.