Unenforceable ordinances

I alluded yesterday to the fact that Durham (city and county) has a lot of well meaning, sounds good type ordinances that are essentially unenforceable.

I may take a look at others from time to time, but today i'll just review my favorite, the noise ordinance.

You can find Durham's municipal code here.

Just a suggestion to city admins - putting a prominent link to the municipal code somewhere on the city's official webiste is probably a good idea.

Sec. 11-1. Noise--Generally.
(a) Unreasonably loud and disturbing noises prohibited: Subject to the provisions of this section, it shall be unlawful for any person or persons to make, permit, continue, or cause to be made or to create any unreasonably loud and disturbing noise in the city. For purposes of this section, the following definitions shall apply:
(1) Unreasonably loud: Noise which is substantially incompatible with the time and location where created to the extent that it creates an actual or imminent interference with peace or good order.
(2) Disturbing: Noise which is perceived by a person of ordinary sensibilities as interrupting the normal peace and calm of the area. In determining whether a noise is unreasonably loud and disturbing, the following factors incident to such noise are to be considered: Time of day; proximity to residential structures; whether the noise is recurrent, intermittent, or constant; the volume and intensity; whether the noise has been enhanced in volume or range by any type of electronic or mechanical means; the character and zoning (if applicable) of the area; whether the noise is related to the normal operation of a business or other labor activity and whether the noise is subject to being controlled without unreasonable effort or expense to the creator thereof.
(b) Particular noises prohibited: The following acts, among others, are declared to be unreasonably loud and disturbing noises in violation of this section but the enumeration shall not be deemed to be exclusive, namely.

there follows, under paragraph b, 13 specifically enumerated cases which are violations of the noise ordinance, but which do not exclude other causes of noise from being considered violation.

Here's the good stuff:

(3) The keeping of any animal or bird which, by causing frequent or long continued noise, shall disturb the comfort and repose of any person in the vicinity.

See, we have, in the County's code of ordinances, a provision for nuisance animals, animals in general being under the purview of the county government, except for bees, the keeping of which is for some unknown reason prohibited within city limits by city ordinance. (Oh, yeah, it's also illegal in the city to walk or ride your mule on a sidewalk.) Up until last summer, there was a specific definition of a nuisance animal which included language stating that a dog which barked, howled, whined or made other noises once per minute for ten minutes was a nuisance. The animal control department spent a lot of its resources responding to complaints about this particualr violation, but sadly, very few citations were actually written. Citizens, and i was one, were requested to set up videotaping devices to try to capture the noise, and an animal control officer or admin would review the tapes with a stopwatch, seeing whether or not a full minute elapsed between barks.

After last year, the Animal Control department successfully petitioned the Board of County Commissioners to drop this provision from the nuisance animal definition, arguing that the city's noise ordinance already specifically covered barking dogs.

Now, here's the catch. Most of the noises covered in the city's ordinance (loud music, machinery, cars without mufflers, etc) require a human being to be around making the noise. It's 1:30 in the morning and your neighbor's party sounds like it's in your own living room? No problem. If you ask them to turn it down and they refuse, you call the cops, assuming your name isn't D.C. Rollins. If they still don't turn it down when the cops come, they get cited for a violation and have to show up in court. (Whether or not the courts will actually enforce the violation is another story. Anecdotal evidence in Durham suggests that these violations are routinely dismissed.)

But, what about the dog who's barking all night or all day long? Chances are, he's barking because he's been tied to a tree all day while no one is home in the house. There's nothing you can do to get him to calm down (except for shooting him, which one of my neighbors tried to do to another neighbor's dog back in October of last year.) And the police are not going to be able to calm the dog down, either. Unfortunately, the police also don't have the tools to issue a citation to someone who is not present during the violation. That's right. Dog barks all day while you're trying to sit in the backyard and drink a couple of beers with your friends. You knock on the door, but no one is home. You call the police to make a noise ordinance complaint. But the police can't write a ticket to someone who's not there. Now, it's possible that the police officer can come back at a later date, with your complaint and willingness to testify, and catch that person at home and issue a citation then and there. But let's be real. Why should that happen?

Here's a solution. Issue noise ordinance violations against the owner of the property. Three clicks on the city's GIS maps will call up the owner's name and address for any residential property in town. Put the burden of paying for these violations on the landlords who rent their properties to tenants who don't give a shit about the people around them, and you'll start seeing a whole lot fewer violations by short term tenants. And in the case where it's actually an owner occupied house, well, no problem there at all, is there?