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Rehoboth police record drop in noise complaints

Department attributes drop to education, awareness
March 15, 2017

A report by the Rehoboth Beach Police Department showed that noise complaints went down in 2016 and that more of the complaints were found by police to be valid compared with 2015.

All told, the department received 81 complaints, down from 104. As would be expected, the vast majority of the complaints occurred between May and September, tourist season in Rehoboth.

Lt. Jaime Riddle, spokesman for the Rehoboth police department, said, “I can tell you that people are more familiar with the ordinance, once our officers educate them about it, and once they are informed, very few repeat the offense.”

In May 2015 the city commissioners passed a new noise ordinance, that instituted the plainly audible standard for measuring noise: a violation occurs when noise is plainly audible from the property line. The intention was to make it easier for officers to enforce the law; the earlier ordinance required using decibel meters to measure noise.

As part of the new ordinance, the commissioners also mandated the police department keep statistics on the number of complaints and the number of citations issued.

Riddle said the plainly audible standard has been much easier for officers to explain when violations occur. He said while the number of complaints is down, the number of complaints that were determined to be violations remained about the same. Riddle said the variance in total noise complaints can be attributed to the reduction in the number of unfounded complaints or complaints that were not violations of the ordinance.

“Our goal is not enforcement, but rather compliance. If we can achieve compliance through response and education, we have served our community in a fair and effective manner,” he said.

The police department statistics show 54 percent of all noise complaints in 2016 occurred during weekends, compared to 2015 when 75 percent of complaints were on weekends.

Fewer complaints were recorded on the three major summer holiday weekends - Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day - with only 13 complaints, and among those, only three complaints were called in during the busy July 4 weekend. Labor Day saw only one noise complaint in 2016.

The report shows most complaints in both years occurred between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. In 2015, the department reported 44 unfounded noise complaints. In 2016, only 19 unfounded noise complaints were recorded.

Of the 81 noise complaints in 2016, 54 complaints, or 67 percent, were from residences occupied by renters or tenants, and 81 percent violated the noise ordinance. Twelve of the 54 complaints, or nearly 15 percent, involving rental properties were due to use of a pool or a hot tub. The report identified three houses that received three or more complaints regarding noise. Nearly 50 percent of the residential noise complaints were a result of people talking or loud voices and 69 percent of those complaints were at rental houses.

Nine of the 81 complaints involved commercial businesses and according to the department, three of those complaints were due to a trash or delivery truck in front of the establishment.

Riddle speculated that the decrease in the number of complaints could be due to seasonal population change, a heightened awareness by residents of noise violations, and education and familiarity with the ordinance.

“When officers respond to noise complaints, their initial purpose is to educate any violator of the meaning and purpose of the plainly audible noise ordinance and the possible consequences of future violations,” Riddle said. “Simply stated, when informed about the plainly audible noise ordinance, people routinely listen.”

Commissioner Kathy McGuiness said, “I believe the noise ordinance has made an impact.  Through data collection we have more information to support that we do not have a real noise issue. Our police force has done an outstanding and professional job with education and enforcement.”

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