Police should target ‘noise nuisance' offenders now
Kaieteur News
December 14, 2006
As the Christmas season unfolds, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) should ensure that nightspots and other chronic ‘noise nuisance' offenders keep the volume of their music at reasonable levels.
Long-suffering members of the public, especially those unlucky enough to live near nightspots that play offensively loud music, know very well that noisemakers tend to pump up the volume to excruciating levels at Christmastime. Hopefully, the police would make it clear early in the season that they will not tolerate excessive noisemaking and unrestrained revelry.
This is an opportune time for the police to launch a campaign against ‘noise nuisance'. It is important that the police initiate and sustain such a campaign for the duration of the holiday season.
They have to make regular checks on offenders because nightspot owners only turn down the volume of their music for the duration of a police visit then turn it up again full blast after the police leave.
To stamp out this type of noise nuisance once and for all, the police need to move with more sustained force against ‘noise nuisance' than they have done in the past.
First, they need to make a powerful public statement announcing a zero tolerance policy against offensively loud music. Then, they should demonstrate the seriousness of their intent by taking stern action and making examples of a few high-profile offenders.
The police need to show beyond any doubt that they will keep up this campaign for as long as it takes to get all offenders to comply. They should seize music equipment and fast-track the prosecution of ‘noise nuisance' perpetrators. As a result of the publicity generated by this police action, potential offenders would be a lot more conscious of the severe consequences of playing their music too loud.
Police action against ‘noise nuisance' must not target nightspots and parties alone.
The police should also take much stronger action against ‘noise nuisance' perpetrated by minibuses, open-air shows and religious gatherings.
Most minibuses are chronic, mobile noise nuisances. Police have tried several times in recent years to control offensively loud music in minibuses, but the problem still persists.
In previous campaigns, police made some headway by targeting the sound equipment in minibuses.
However, they lost ground when the campaigns ran out of steam too early.
This would be a good time for the police to redouble their efforts to stop loud music in minibuses and to maintain intense pressure until the problem is alleviated.
Open-air shows are another major source of ‘noise nuisance'. These shows pose a two-dimensional problem — noise and content.
The nature of such shows is unavoidably intrusive and this must be carefully managed. Before giving permission for such events, the police must ensure that conveners will keep the volume of their sound systems at a decent level that will not unreasonably disturb nearby residents.
The police also need to monitor the content and duration of such shows to prevent persons who live in proximity of these events from being exposed to sights or sounds that are unwelcome and offensive.
Another perennial ‘noise nuisance' problem the police should target is that of certain church gatherings.
Very often, the ‘faithful' at these events act as though they have a God-given right to make as much noise as they want, whenever they want and for as long as they want, simply because it is a church function.
They do not seem to care if their noise disrupts other persons in the neighbourhood. The police should go after these noisy churches with the same intensity as they go after other ‘noise nuisance' offenders.
The public should urge the police to keep unwanted, unreasonable noise out of the ears of the decent law-abiding citizens this Christmas and give the police their full support in this venture.