Drunk in Public

RC Phillips, DDA (Ret.)

October, 2021

On his front porch, or in his front yard, is "public" for purposes of 647(f) so long as it is an area open to the general public; i.e., is an area anyone would feel, under the specific circumstances of that case, free to walk up to the front door and knock.

The front area outside of a person's house was a public place within the meaning of Pen C § 647, subd (f), where the area was open to common or general use so that a complete stranger was able to walk through the outside area to the front door of the home without challenge. (People v.

Olson (1971, Cal App 2d Dist) 18 Cal.App.3rd 592.)

However, if the area is fenced off and guarded by dogs, for instance, a person would not feel like he is inferably invited to walk up to the front door.  So a suspect's front yard and door are NOT a public in that unique circumstance.

The evidence did not support defendant's conviction of unlawful public intoxication in violation of Pen C § 647, subd. (f), since defendant's front yard, where he was arrested, was not a "public place" within the meaning of the statute. Whether a particular location is a public place depends upon the facts of the individual case. At the time the arresting officer, who was responding to a report that someone was in a gray van screaming and trying to escape, reached defendant's residence, defendant was on his front porch. His yard was surrounded by a three-and-a-half-foot-high fence with a gate that was unlocked. The gate was not standing open; the arresting officer opened it, whereupon defendant released three dogs into the yard, which acted as an effective if unintentional deterrent to the officer. A "public place" means "common to all or many; general; open to common use." The fence, gate, and dogs all provided challenge to public access. (People v. White (1991, Cal.App. 5th Dist) 227 Cal.App.3rd 886.)  

In the “old days,” we used to “invite” a person from inside his house onto the front porch and then arrest him for being drunk in public.  You cannot do that anymore because he was not "found" in a public place.  The Court held that inviting him out into public did not make him "drunk in public."  In a case in which a juvenile court found true an allegation against a minor for disorderly conduct in violation of Pen C § 647(f), for being found in any public place under the influence of intoxicating liquor, the intoxicated minor's compliance with a deputy sheriff's requests to come out of a woodshed located 10 to 15 feet from the side of a house and to the street did not constitute a violation of § 647(f); whether the minor came to the street because the deputy requested him to do so or because the deputy compelled him to do so was immaterial because, in either situation, the minor was not "found in any public place" within the meaning of § 647(f). (In re R. K. (2008, 3d Dist) 160 Cal.App.4th 1615.) 

Also, a public hallway in a building, open to the general public, is "public" for purposes of being drunk in public under 647(f). 

A hallway of an apartment building was held to be a “public place" in People v. Perez (1976) 64 Cal.App.3rd 297.