Tennessee Public Intoxication Laws

Being drunk or high in public can lead to your arrest in Tennessee if you're at risk of hurting yourself or others or are causing a disturbance. In some cases, you could be offered treatment instead of time behind bars. Learn more about Tennessee's public intoxication laws and penalties.

Is Public Intoxication a Crime in Tennessee?

While simply being intoxicated in public isn't a crime, it becomes one when the person:

• presents a danger to oneself or others
• presents a danger to property, or
• unreasonably annoys persons nearby.

The law applies to being under the influence of drugs, alcohol, or other intoxicating substances.

A conviction for public intoxication carries class C misdemeanor penalties of up to 30 days in jail and a $50 fine.

(Tenn. Code §§ 39-17-310, 40-35-111 (2024).)

Understanding Tennessee's Public Intoxication Offense

Prosecutors must prove more than intoxication for this crime. Below are definitions and examples of public places, endangerment, and unreasonable annoyance.

What Is Considered a Public Place?

Tennessee law defines a "public place" as one where the general public or a group of persons has a right of access, including parks, businesses, highways, transportation facilities, schools, amusement parks, or lobbies of apartments or hotels. (Tenn. Code § 39-11-106 (2024).)

What Does It Mean to "Unreasonably Annoy" Others?

While the law doesn't define what it means to "unreasonably annoy" others, Tennessee courts have ruled that a person can unreasonably annoy others even when their conduct is not indecent, offensive, or disgusting. But the conduct has to actually annoy another person in public. It's not enough that the intoxicated person could have annoyed others.

When Is Someone a Danger to Self, Others, or Property?

One Tennessee court upheld an arrest for public intoxication when an intoxicated pedestrian was walking in circles in a street intersection. Other instances where a jury might find a person to be a danger to self, others, or property include:

• someone who's arguing and trying to start a brawl
• a person who's trying to knock over a mailbox, or
• somebody stumbling near a construction zone.

Will You Go to Jail for Public Intoxication in Tennessee?

While Tennessee makes public intoxication a misdemeanor, its laws promote medical intervention over criminal penalties when appropriate and available. This approach involves a continuum of responses to substance abuse and addiction, ranging from voluntary treatment and protective custody to criminal penalties.

Voluntary Treatment Instead of Jail

Tennessee's treatment approach to addiction led to the passage of laws that require police officers to take intoxicated individuals (who are not otherwise breaking the law) into protective custody, rather than arrest them. The officer must promptly bring the person to a judicial officer who must assign them to treatment in an approved facility if:

• the judicial officer finds that the person needs treatment
• the person agrees to treatment, and
• an approved treatment facility is available in the county where the incident occurred.

A person taken into custody who doesn't want treatment, or is found not to need treatment, must be immediately released. When the facility administrator, on the recommendation of a health care professional, determines that the grounds for the commitment no longer exist, the person must be immediately released.

(Tenn. Code §§ 33-10-202, 33-10-407 (2024).)

No Arrest Record

Protective custody rather than arrest is a key element of the treatment model. As a result, Tennessee law mandates that there be no record indicating that an intoxicated person was arrested or charged with a crime.

The law also limits the type of search that officers can conduct. While the law does not prohibit a search, it does require that any warrantless search undertaken by police officers when taking a person into protective custody be "strictly limited by the circumstances justifying the search."

(Tenn. Code § 33-10-407 (2024).)

Defenses to Public Intoxication Charges in Tennessee

Several defenses may be raised to a charge of public intoxication in Tennessee. Some of the various defenses are discussed below.

Defendant Wasn't in a Public Place

A Tennessee court overturned the public intoxication conviction of a man who was arrested for arguing loudly outside his own house after midnight, in part because the man was in the proximity of his home and no one else was present. Although he was technically outside his private space, he was not "in public" because no one else was present and his conduct did not affect anyone else.

No Endangerment

A peacefully intoxicated person, who is conscious and coherent and passes the time staring at the stars from a park bench, is not violating Tennessee's public intoxication law. A Memphis police officer described in court a man he had arrested on a public intoxication charge as "obviously intoxicated in public" with "glassy eyes and slurred speech." Although the man had admitted to consuming several alcoholic beverages, he won a reversal of his conviction because a videotape showed that he had a normal gait, did not slur his words, did not have glassy eyes, and did not otherwise appear drunk. Merely being drunk, but in control and posing no danger to others, is not against the law in Tennessee.

Not Unreasonably Annoying Others

In the case involving the man arguing loudly outside his own house, the court also found that, because the prosecutor did not present evidence that the man had actually annoyed anyone else in the vicinity, the charge could not stand. The possibility that someone might have heard him and been annoyed was not sufficient to support the charge.

When to Talk to a Lawyer

Even though a class C misdemeanor doesn't present a lot of jail time, having an arrest, charges, or conviction on record isn't something to take lightly. A record can make it difficult to get a job, insurance, or housing in the future. Consider talking to a lawyer before agreeing to any plea deal or pleading guilty.