Waterloo, IA Public Conduct: Public Urination (2026)

Section 5-2-9, adopted by Ordinance 4292 on April 27, 1998 and codified in Title 5, Chapter 2, Police Regulations, bans urinating in or on public or common property. The section names streets, alleys, sidewalks, golf courses, pools and parks as covered property, then adds a second, broader clause reaching any place at all, public or private, where the person urinating could reasonably expect to be viewed by other people. The only carve-out written into the section is use of a public restroom. Waterloo has not amended the wording since 1998, so the same short, two-clause rule still governs the whole city, including the Cedar Valley riverfront trail and Lost Island Park grounds.

The chapter groups this offense next to peeping (5-2-8) and trespassing (5-2-10), but does not designate it a municipal infraction subject to a civil-penalty schedule the way trespassing is under section 1-3-2C. Because 5-2-9 sets no penalty of its own, a violation defaults to the citywide general penalty in Waterloo City Code section 1-3-1: any act the code declares unlawful without specifying another penalty is punishable by a fine up to the maximum set for a simple misdemeanor under Iowa Code section 903.1(1)(a). Waterloo Police Department officers, who patrol downtown, the riverfront and city parks, can issue a citation directly from personal observation; there is no notice-and-hearing process built into this section as there is for licensing offenses elsewhere in the code.