Colorado Disorderly Conduct Penalties

Quick answer: Disorderly conduct under C.R.S. § 18-9-106 covers five kinds of public disturbance, and the penalty depends on which one: offensive utterances, unreasonable noise, and public fighting are petty offenses (up to 10 days in jail and/or a $300 fine); displaying a firearm or simulated firearm to alarm others is a class 2 misdemeanor (up to 120 days and/or $750); and discharging a firearm in public is a class 1 misdemeanor (up to 364 days and/or $1,000). Most cases, such as bar fights, loud parties, shouting matches etc. sit at the bottom of that ladder, and many resolve without a conviction at all.

What C.R.S. § 18-9-106 Actually Prohibits

A person commits disorderly conduct in Colorado by intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly doing any of the following:

• § 18-9-106(1)(a) — making a coarse and obviously offensive utterance, gesture, or display in a public place that tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace;
• § 18-9-106(1)(c) — making unreasonable noise in a public place or near a private residence the person has no right to occupy;
• § 18-9-106(1)(d) — fighting with another person in a public place (amateur and professional athletic contests excepted);
• § 18-9-106(1)(e) — not being a peace officer, discharging a firearm in a public place, except lawful target practice, hunting, or the ritual discharge of blanks at a veteran’s funeral;
• § 18-9-106(1)(f) — not being a peace officer, displaying a real or simulated firearm, or an article fashioned to look like one, in a public place in a manner calculated to alarm — and it does alarm another person.

In practice, the two charges Colorado courts see constantly are the bar fight ((1)(d)) and the noise complaint ((1)(c)), and disorderly conduct is also one of the most common reduced-to offenses in plea negotiations, precisely because it sits at the bottom of the criminal ladder.

Penalties by Subsection

Conduct	Subsection	Classification	Maximum penalty
Offensive utterance / gesture / display	(1)(a)	Petty offense*	10 days jail and/or $300
Unreasonable noise	(1)(c)	Petty offense*	10 days jail and/or $300
Fighting in public	(1)(d)	Petty offense	10 days jail and/or $300
Displaying a firearm or simulated firearm to alarm	(1)(f)	Class 2 misdemeanor	120 days jail and/or $750
Discharging a firearm in public	(1)(e)	Class 1 misdemeanor	364 days jail and/or $1,000

*An offense under (1)(a) or (1)(c) committed with intent to disrupt a funeral, or to cause severe emotional distress to a person attending one, is elevated to a class 2 misdemeanor. Petty offense penalties are set by C.R.S. § 18-1.3-503; these classifications reflect the law as restructured effective March 1, 2022, which reduced most disorderly conduct tiers.

The First Amendment Problem Baked Into This Statute

Disorderly conduct prosecutions under the “offensive utterance” prong collide with the First Amendment, and Colorado’s appellate history shows it. An earlier version of subsection (1)(a) was struck down as facially overbroad in Hansen v. People, 548 P.2d 1278 (Colo. 1976), forcing the legislature to rewrite it; a separate subsection, former (1)(b), was also held unconstitutional and eventually deleted from the statute. What survives is deliberately narrow: the “tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace” clause confines (1)(a) to fighting words — speech likely to provoke immediate violence — not merely rude, profane, or offensive speech. Federal courts applying Colorado law have said exactly that.

The defense consequence is real: if the charge rests on what you said to an officer, in an argument, at a protest, the constitutional question is usually the strongest card in the deck. Prosecutors know the utterance prong is fragile, which is part of why these counts so often resolve favorably.

Disorderly Conduct vs. Menacing: The Weapon-Display Line

Displaying a firearm to alarm ((1)(f)) lives one charging decision away from a far more serious crime. If the display placed a specific person in fear of imminent serious bodily injury, prosecutors can charge menacing (C.R.S. § 18-3-206) instead which is a class 1 misdemeanor, or a class 5 felony when a deadly weapon is involved. The Colorado Supreme Court has upheld the prosecution’s discretion to choose between the two (People v. Torres, 848 P.2d 911 (Colo. 1993)), which means the same bar room incident can be a petty-adjacent misdemeanor or a felony depending on how it is charged and negotiating a menacing count down to disorderly conduct is one of the most common and valuable outcomes in this space.

Defenses That Actually Work

First Amendment. As above if it was speech, it must amount to fighting words, not offense.

Self-defense. Public fighting charges under (1)(d) frequently involve someone who did not start it. Colorado’s self-defense law applies.

Not a “public place.” The statute reaches public places, and the case law has limits. Conduct inside certain government buildings, for example, is governed by a different statute entirely (C.R.S. § 18-9-110), and courts have dismissed disorderly counts brought in the wrong setting.

Mental state. The prosecution must prove you acted intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly. Accidental noise or an alarm you never intended and never calculated to cause does not satisfy (1)(f)’s “calculated to alarm” element.

The record path. Even where the evidence is bad, the bottom-of-the-ladder posture of this offense creates room: dismissals, deferred resolutions, and pleas to municipal equivalents are common, and dismissed charges can be sealed without a waiting period. Conviction-sealing waits for petty offenses and misdemeanors are among the shortest in Colorado’s sealing statutes — see our record sealing page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is disorderly conduct a misdemeanor in Colorado?

Sometimes. The utterance, noise, and fighting variants are petty offenses. The firearm-display variant is a class 2 misdemeanor, and discharging a firearm in public is a class 1 misdemeanor.

Can I go to jail for disorderly conduct?

The maximums allow it up to10 days for petty variants, and a max of 364 for public firearm discharge, but jail is uncommon for first-offense petty disorderly conduct, and many cases resolve without any conviction.

Is swearing at a police officer disorderly conduct?

Profanity alone is protected speech. The (1)(a) prong requires words that tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace, the constitutional “fighting words” standard, and Colorado’s courts have struck broader readings of the statute. Context matters, and these are among the most defensible charges in the criminal code.

Will a disorderly conduct conviction stay on my record?

Not necessarily. Dismissed charges can be sealed right away, and conviction-sealing waiting periods at this offense level are short. The better strategy is usually to fight for the dismissal first.