Toms River Disorderly Conduct Ordinance

Toms River has adopted a municipal ordinance violation for which also bears the name disorderly conduct. This charge is not, however, a disorderly persons offense or criminal in nature. It represents a local infraction akin in many ways to being noisy, having your burglar alarm go off often or putting your garbage out on the wrong day. The following is the Toms River disorderly conduct ordinance:

§ 388-4. Acts prohibited.

After the effective date of this article, each of the following acts and things are hereby forbidden in this municipality:

1. No person shall go about from door to door, or place himself on any street, highway or road to beg, crave charity or collect alms.
2. No person shall wander abroad and lodge in any tavern, inn, house of entertainment, barn or other building without the permission of the owner of said property so to do.
3. No person shall lodge in the open air on any public property, street, highway or field without permission of the owner of said property so to do.
4. No person shall leave or threaten to leave his family to be maintained by the Township or become chargeable thereto.
5. No person shall fish or crab on any private property within the Township of Toms River without the permission of the property owner.
6. (Reserved)
7. No person shall allow himself or herself to become a common drunkard or common prostitute in this municipality.
8. No person shall have upon his or her person any picklock, key, crow, jack, bit or other implement with intent to break and enter any buildings, or shall have upon his or her person any pistol, hanger or other dangerous weapon with intent to assault any person.
9. No person shall engage in the practice of what is commonly known as “peeping tom,” which is hereby defined to be the trespassing upon another property and peering into one or more windows of another person’s property.
10. No person shall enter any dwelling house, stable, barn, smokehouse, automobile of any individual or corporation with intent to steal any goods or chattels.
11. No person shall enter upon any building or go upon the lands belonging to the public school district of this municipality or used and occupied for school purposes and break, injure or deface any such building or part thereof or the fences or outhouses belonging to or connected to such buildings or lands.
12. No persons shall disturb the exercises of a public school or molest or give annoyance to the children attending the public school or any teacher therein.
13. No person shall unlawfully carry upon his or her person any offensive or dangerous weapon.
14. No person shall give a false alarm of fire. :1

15. No person shall solicit or engage in sexual intercourse when unlawful.
16. No parent or person controlling a child of school age shall fail or refuse to require such child to attend a public school regularly unless said child is physically or mentally incapable of attending such school or unless the child is otherwise provided with school facilities at least equal and comparable to a private school or private tutor.
17. No person shall defraud a hotel or eating or lodging house.
18. No person shall dump any garbage, refuse, paper, glass or cans upon any public highway or any private property.
19. No person shall place or throw any glass, bottle, can or other sharp and dangerous substance upon any public highway.
20. No person shall act as or be a tramp or beggar in this Township.
21. No person shall possess or operate a punch board or other gambling paraphernalia.
22. Except as otherwise provided in this Code, no alcoholic beverages shall be transported, consumed, maintained, stored or distributed on Township property, in Township buildings or structures or in Township vehicles.
23. Alcoholic beverages.

(1) No person shall consume an alcoholic beverage within the Township of Toms River or have in his or her possession any open alcoholic beverage container with unconsumed alcoholic beverage while:

1. (a) In or on a public street, lane, roadway, avenue, sidewalk, public parking place, park, playground, recreational area, school building or grounds or any other public or quasi-public place or on any public conveyance.
2. (b) In a private motor vehicle or truck, while the same is in motion or parked on any public street, lane, parking area, parking lot or other public or quasi-public place.
3. (c) Upon any private property not his or her own without the permission of the owner or other person having the authority to grant such permission.

(2) Nothing contained in this provision, however, shall be construed to apply to the consumption of alcoholic beverages within the licensed premises of an establishment having a plenary retail consumption liquor license or at an event duly authorized or sanctioned by the Township of Toms River for which all necessary permits have been acquired.

X. No person shall cause or recklessly create any disturbance that risks public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm or engage in threatening or violent behavior which serves no legitimate purpose.

25. No person shall operate a motor vehicle on vacant privately owned property unless the operator has on his or her possession written authorization to operate such vehicle from the property owner, his or her heirs, agents or assigns. “Motor vehicles,” as defined in this section, are vehicles that are propelled other than by human or animal power.
26. Unlicensed structures; defiant trespasser, peering into window or other openings of dwelling places; defenses. [Added 5-26-2009 by Ord. No. 4204-09]
    1. (1) Unlicensed entry of structures. A person commits an offense if, knowing that he or she is not licensed or privileged to do so, he or she enters or surreptitiously remains in any research facility, public structure, private structure, or separately secured or occupied portion thereof.
    2. (2) Defiant trespasser. A person commits an offense if, knowing that he or she is not licensed or privileged to do so, he or she enters or remains in any place as to which notice against trespass is given by:
       1. (a) Actual communication to the actor; or
       2. (b) Posting in a manner prescribed by law or reasonably likely to come to the attention of intruders; or
       3. (c) Fencing or other enclosure manifestly designated to exclude intruders.

    3. (3) Peering into windows or other openings of dwelling places. A person commits an offense if, knowing that he or she is not licensed or privileged to do so, he or she peers into a window or other opening of a dwelling or other structure adapted for overnight accommodation for the purpose of invading the privacy of another person and under circumstances in which a reasonable person in the dwelling or other structure would not expect to be observed.

    4. (4) Defenses. It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this subsection that:

       1. (a) A structure involved in an offense under Subsection Z(1) was abandoned;
       2. (b) The structure was at the time open to members of the public and the actor complied with all lawful conditions imposed on access to or remaining in the structure; or
       3. (c) The actor reasonably believed that the owner of the structure, or other person empowered to license access thereto, would have licensed him to enter or remain, or, in the case of Subsection Z(3) of this section, to peer.