§10-1601. Legislative Findings.
The Council of the City of Philadelphia hereby finds:
(1) That
there are increasing incidences of disturbances to the public enjoyment of
sporting and other entertainment events at public places of assembly,
restaurant/entertainment districts and city permitted festivals and parades,
caused by disorderly and drunken
persons;
[218] (2) That
although the conduct prescribed by this Chapter entails behavior that is also
violative of the penal laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the resources
currently available to the Criminal Justice System are insufficient for
controlling the prescribed activities in a cost efficient manner, and that, with
the exception of aggrievous circumstances, may be inappropriate for regulating
certain undesirable individual conduct and activity;
(3) That it is
desirable to control what might otherwise be an unmanageable volume of cases in
our criminal courts and that in most instances out of fairness to our citizens
the stigma created by criminal prosecutions can be avoided;
(4) That the
City of Philadelphia, pursuant to its police powers, is authorized to regulate
individual conduct and activity outside of the criminal justice system, and an
administrative process for the adjudication of certain Code violations is an
efficient, fair and reasonable alternative thereto; and
(5) That a
system of administrative adjudication of certain Code violations should provide
for the proper separation of the administrative and executive functions from the
adjudicating functions in the enforcement process and promote a fair and
expeditious system for the disposition of violations.