Coming Soon to Your Town: Noise "Cameras"

Noise cameras are the new frontier in automated traffic enforcement. Growing numbers of agencies across the U.S., from New York to Hawaii, see them as a way to combat revving engines, blaring stereos, honking horns and earsplitting mufflers—some illegally altered.

For police, public officials and residents, the machines partially solve a perennial top complaint, particularly during warmer months in spots like Newport, where throngs flock to the Gilded Age mansions, music festivals and the bustling colonial waterfront. “Folks have reached their boiling point,” Newport City Councilor David Carlin III said. 

Local resident Caroline Richards was on her front porch one June evening when she recorded what sounded like a racetrack. “We should be hearing crickets and nice summer sounds,” said Richards, 54 years old, a Realtor who supports the cameras. “I’m not for over-policing what people want to drive or do. But it’s just obnoxious, it just definitely feels like it’s gotten worse.”

To critics (some of whom refuse to pay the tickets) the devices are another step toward a surveillance society and can unfairly ensnare drivers simply going about their routines in street-legal vehicles.  Harley rider James Alves, 56, who lives in a nearby town and received a noise warning, said he hasn’t altered his bike and tries to ride respectfully. “If I see a couple walking a dog on the sidewalk, I pull my clutch in,” he said. Alves, who works at an auto-parts business, views the cameras as “just another way to grab money.”

Cameras that catch speeders and red-light runners are already common nationwide. Noise cameras are a recent import from Europe, first appearing several years ago and now spreading.  Later this year, Knoxville, Tenn., plans to start downtown noise-camera enforcement, fining violators $50. Albuquerque, N.M., beset by drag racing, is trying out three cameras. In Philadelphia, where authorities tested the cameras, the city council passed a bill that would permit enforcement. Hawaii plans to install 10 detectors around Oahu to gather data on violators. Providence, R.I., budgeted $185,000 for a pilot program, while Avoca, Iowa, is set to crack down on overly loud trucks. 

New York City reigns as the U.S. noise-camera epicenter. It operates 10 in partnership with U.K.-based Intelligent Instruments, whose SoundVue cameras film and pinpoint the offending vehicle even with others present. Fines are $800 for a first violation, $1,700 for a second, and $2,500 for a third. The city has issued more than 2,500 tickets since 2021, though it has collected only about $550,000 of the roughly $2 million in fines.

Rohit “Rit” Aggarwala, commissioner of New York’s Department of Environmental Protection said, “It’s totally legal to buy a massive sound system to put in your backyard,  That doesn’t mean you’re allowed to play it at full blast in a crowded neighborhood, right?” The noise code is city law, he added: “People have to figure out how to avoid violating.”

Jonathon Zitt, a Navy sailor based in Newport, received a ticket from the same camera while on a food run to BJ’s in the 1994 Nissan Skyline GT-R he brought back from Japan. The citation noted 94.9 decibels. Zitt, 38, who lives in neighboring Middletown, said he and his wife have thought about retiring   locally.“That’s not an option if I can’t drive my car,” he said. “This is my dream car. I worked my whole life to buy this.”  One of Zitt’s complaints: No signs warn drivers about the cameras. Duffy, the police chief, said previous noise-related signs backfired as some motorcyclists revved their engines—an acoustic middle finger. He said he recently asked the traffic unit to explore signage possibilities. 

So far, Newport has issued a few dozen noise-camera tickets, and Duffy said he expects the pace to accelerate. “I think when you have success with enforcement, you’ll be able to change the behavior.” That can’t come soon enough for Bill Hogan, 73, a retired municipal chief financial officer. “Our friends live throughout all of Newport,” he said. “The hue and cry is the same. Do something about the damn noise and the speed.”