Surprise, AZ Public Conduct: Public Urination (2026)

Section 34-159, 'Public urination or defecation prohibited,' bars anyone from urinating or defecating in a place exposed to public view, with a single exception for proper use of a toilet or other suitable facility provided for that purpose. 020, carried forward without amendment, and it sits in Chapter 34's Article VI, 'Offenses Involving Public Morals,' next to the city's prostitution ban in Section 34-158. Because the section requires only that the act occur in a place exposed to public view, it reaches sidewalks, parking lots, alleys, parks, vacant lots, and even a vehicle interior visible from the street; it does not require proof that anyone actually witnessed the act, only that the location made it visible to the public.

Surprise's parks code separately restates the ban at Section 42-52(e) for parks and camping areas, calling it 'unlawful and a public nuisance to urinate or defecate in public,' so the prohibition is enforceable both as a stand-alone Chapter 34 offense and as part of the urban camping nuisance provisions. A violation of Section 34-159 is a class 1 misdemeanor by its own terms, not merely by the Code's general default penalty, meaning police can book a suspect directly rather than relying on the citywide catch-all in Section 1-7(d).