BY BEN BRACHFELD
State legislation aimed at
cracking down on loud motorists
would also establish
a “noise camera” program
across the fi ve boroughs,
according to the southern
Brooklyn pol behind the bill,
who hopes the scanners will
help capture those violating
volume ordinances.
The Stop Loud and Excessive
Exhaust Pollution
(SLEEP) legislation, introduced
by state Sen. Andrew
Gounardes, would increase
the fi ne for modifying vehicle
muffl ers from $150 to $1,000,
and also provide all police
squad cars with decibel readers,
along with noise cameras.
“We think $1,000 is gonna
hit people,” Gounardes told
Brooklyn Paper. “If you’re
gonna spend a couple hundred
bucks souping up your car in
the fi rst place, illegally, you
should have no problem paying
the price for breaking the law.”
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The legislation comes as
many New Yorkers lose sleep
as a result of large groups of
people riding loud dirt bikes
and drag racing well into the
night. Noise complaints to
311 during the three months
of lockdown at the beginning
of the coronavirus pandemic,
from March 20 to June 14, 2020,
quadrupled from the same period
the year prior.
Noise complaints to 311 have
dropped signifi cantly since the
darkest days of 2020, but generally
remain well above what
they were pre-pandemic.
Gounardes’ legislation
would change New York’s
noise ordinance enforcement
criteria from the vague “excessive
and unusual” level to
more specifi c decibel metrics
already codifi ed in the state’s
Vehicle and Traffi c Law.
“Your defi nition of excessive
could be totally different
from what yours or mine
would be,” Gounardes said.
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“When you have a subjective
standard of law, it makes it almost
impossible to enforce.”
The text of Gounardes’ bill
states that the noise cameras
would allow for “unbiased yet
thorough enforcement of legal
noise limits,” modeled after the
city’s automated speed camera
program. Those cameras are located
in 750 school zones around
the city, and operate between 6
am and 10 pm, though the mayor
has called for the state to allow
them to operate 24/7. Speeders
caught are issued a $50 fi ne if
captured within a quarter-mile
of a school zone.
A city report released last
year on the speed camera program
showed substantial declines
in speeding and accidents
in areas where cameras
were placed. On average, speeding
violations in areas where
cameras were placed dropped
by 72.7 percent after four-anda
half months. Crashes and
injuries also declined over a
one-year period, by 14 and 16.9
percent, respectively.
The cameras would be introduced
to the city as part of
a pilot program, Gounardes
said. “We want to see if this
would be an adequate tool to
use to address this huge quality
of-life problem,” he said.
Some observers, however,
believe that the noise cameras
are not the solution, and in
fact could feasibly create even
bigger problems.
Albert Fox Cahn, executive
director of the Surveillance
Technology Oversight Project,
is skeptical that the cameras
would even be reliable, noting
that the NYPD’s gunshot sensor
ShotSpotter often misidentifi
es sounds and locations. But
even if it does work as intended,
he said, it could become a tool
for surveilling marginalized
communities and listening in
on pedestrians.
“Even if the technology
does work, it’s still quite dangerous,”
Cahn told Brooklyn
Paper. “Any system capable of
measuring how loud our cars
are is also going to be capable of
recording our conversations.”
The SLEEP bill to increase
fi nes has passed the Transportation
Committees in both the
Assembly and Senate, and is
currently awaiting a full fl oor
vote in both chambers. The
noise camera pilot is still in
committee.
Pol hopes ‘noise cameras’
will catch muffl er modifi ers
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