§ 1601. Ordinances.
[Subsections (a), (a.1), and (b), governing adoption and publication, omitted.]
(c) (Deleted by amendment)
(c.1) An ordinance enacted by the board of supervisors pursuant to this act shall prescribe the fines and penalties which may be imposed for its violation and shall, unless otherwise specified in another statute, designate the method of its enforcement in accordance with the following:
(1) Civil enforcement.--Except as provided in paragraph (2), when the penalty imposed for the violation of an ordinance enacted pursuant to the provisions of this act is not voluntarily paid to the township, the township shall initiate a civil enforcement proceeding before a district justice. The civil enforcement proceeding shall be initiated by complaint or by such other means as may be provided by the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure. An ordinance which is to be enforced through a civil enforcement proceeding may prescribe civil penalties not to exceed six hundred dollars ($600) per violation. In addition to or in lieu of civil actions before a district justice, townships may enforce ordinances in equity. In any case where a penalty for a violation of a township ordinance has not been timely paid and the person upon whom the penalty was imposed is found to have been liable therefor in civil proceedings, the violator shall be liable for the penalty imposed, including additional daily penalties for continuing violations, plus court costs and reasonable attorney fees incurred by the township in the enforcement proceedings. A township shall be exempt from the payment of costs in any civil case brought to enforce an ordinance in accordance with this paragraph.
(2) Enforcement as summary offenses.--For an ordinance regulating building, housing, property maintenance, health, fire, public safety, parking, solicitation, curfew, water, air or noise pollution, the board of supervisors shall provide that its enforcement shall be by action brought before a district justice in the same manner provided for the enforcement of summary offenses under the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure. The municipal solicitor may assume charge of the prosecution without the consent of the District Attorney as required under Pa.R.Crim.P. No. 83(c) (relating to trial in summary cases). The board of supervisors may prescribe criminal fines not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000) per violation and may prescribe imprisonment to the extent allowed by law for the punishment of summary offenses.
(3) Existing ordinances.--With regard to ordinances enacted prior to May 7, 1996, those regulating building, housing, property maintenance, health, fire, public safety, parking, solicitation, curfew, water, air or noise pollution shall be deemed automatically amended so that they shall be enforced by an action brought before a district justice in the same manner provided for the enforcement of summary offenses in accordance with paragraph (2). All other ordinances enacted prior to May 7, 1996, shall be deemed automatically amended so that they shall be enforced through a civil enforcement proceeding in accordance with paragraph (1).
(4) Enforcement in equity.--Ordinances may be enforced by a township through an action in equity brought in the court of common pleas of the county where the township is situate.
(5) Separate offenses.--Ordinances may provide that a separate offense shall arise for each day or portion thereof in which a violation is found to exist or for each section of the ordinance which is found to have been violated.
(6) Payment to treasurer.--All fines and penalties collected for the violation of any township ordinance shall be paid to the township treasurer.
(7) Enforcement officers or agents.--The board of supervisors may delegate the initial determination of ordinance violation and the service of notice of violation to such officers or agents as the township shall deem qualified for that purpose.
[Subsections (d) and (e), governing codification and adoption of standard codes by reference, omitted.]
Why this section matters for the database. The State Police document describes constables as contractors serving judicial functions. This section shows what a township actually buys when it engages the constable office: the enforcement of its public-safety, property-maintenance, parking, and curfew ordinances “in the same manner provided for the enforcement of summary offenses under the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure.” A citation may be issued by a “law enforcement officer,” which Pa.R.Crim.P. 103 defines functionally as any person given the power by law to enforce the law when acting within the scope of that person’s employment. The constable serves the resulting summonses and executes the resulting warrants for fines and costs under 44 Pa.C.S. § 7161. Paragraph (7) lets the board delegate the initial determination of a violation and the service of notice to the officers it deems qualified. That is executive-branch law-enforcement service rendered to a municipality, the same service a contracting municipal police department renders under an intergovernmental agreement.
The power behind the work is not this section. It is the constable’s common-law authority to keep the peace and to arrest those who break it, which In re Act 147 and Taylor recognize for every constable of the Commonwealth and which the General Assembly has codified for boroughs in 44 Pa.C.S. § 7158. A township constable engaged by the township enforces its ordinances on the same footing as a borough constable, through the tracks this section prescribes. Boroughs, townships of the first class, and cities have parallel provisions in their own codes.
Statutory text reproduced from the Second Class Township Code, Act of May 1, 1933, P.L. 103, No. 69, § 1601, as amended (53 P.S. § 66601). Subsections (a), (a.1), (b), (d), and (e), which govern adoption, publication, and codification of ordinances, are omitted here. The official source is the Pennsylvania General Assembly's online statute repository. This page is not legal advice; consult a licensed Pennsylvania attorney for guidance on specific legal questions.
