a small town of 1400 people near me has now p*** a new city ordanance for loud exhaust . if an officer feels your exhaust is to loud he may seize your auto now as a builder what are you supposed to do ????????? is there any laws that protect us or a we screwed ?
Run for city council, ask for a decibel check as to what p***es and what doesn't. My opinion is get active in the cities business and people won't be as willing to vote stupid things in. Best of luck .
ever hear that song "I fought the law,,, but the law won?" as i dont agree with jack booted **** our legal stiffs are pushing on our creative freedoms..when it comes to noise ordinances they have been in effect for longer then you probably were driving. if you dont want to stick out and chance the Man ****ing with you..try to do your best to please them. after you get it done and running take it to them and ask them what they think, bet they will respect your interest in abiding. and that way you covered your *** too
If an officer FEELS....? I doubt that's what the local ordinance says, but if it does it is uncons***utional. Such a law must incorporate a reasonable standard.
get a copy of it and push the issue.."if he feels " is not supported buy our legal statutes..there has to be more to it..like decible ratings and some legal ****..not ones "feelings" as said before that would cons***ute an infingement on your cons***utional rights... lets not make this a politics thread...send it to SEMA if that is exactly how it really is worded,,, it wont fly. but it will probably get them to adopt an already written and enforced noise level law..but in the mean time Barny wont be writing any bogus tickets and impounding any cars ...."legally"
A small town should be easier than a large one for you to get involved to change things if you don't like the way they are going.Run for office,even if you don't win you will have a forum to voice your opinion and ideas.
sorry i ment bill of rights nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation and im not going to further argue this point on the hAMB...remember the rules boys..No politics.. if you dont know your rights ..than let them take them from you
absolutely correct information, basing enforcement on an opinion or feeling won't cut it at the court house. There have to be measureable standards on which to base a violation. The city attorney should know better.
I bet it is really worded "in the officer's opinion" which is based on training and experience. This is a legal standard which also can apply to the overall safety of a vehicle. In Ca. there are CARB statutes which apply to the decibel and emission level of aftermarket exhaust systems. air intakes, etc. I bet you can find a decibel limit in the state vehicle code but it would be your expense to have your vehicle tested to fight a ticket. What these laws really mean is that citizens are sick and tired of getting their windows rattled by irresponsible "hot rodders" and "bikers" running straight pipes. Most cops don't mind a little extra "rumble" but think about it before you run those open pipes! This is going to ruin it for everybody as the cops will get even more intolerant.
In California, the law states you cannot modify the exhaust to INCREASE or AMPLIFY noise from stock. One guy fought his ticket claiming the car wasn't too loud. The Judge had the offender pull the car next to his courtroom and went outside to listen to it. Needless to say, the Judge heard other cars driving through the parking lot, then heard this guy start his car and found him guilty. Another fought a ticket for having Flowmasters on his OT muscle car. The officer brought an article from either Popular Hot Rodding or Car Craft where they did a muffler shootout. The article said that if you run Flowmasters, they are 4 times louder than stock and you will get a ticket. That guy was found guilty too. I believe these types of laws are enacted due to the few who disregard the laws already on the books by running straight pipes.
Well /why should it be some one else's idea that is law rather than yours. We all have a right to live the way we want to.
Bzzzzzzzt!.....Wrong! We all live by laws and regulations every day of our lives........laws made by folks that we elect to ostensibly represent us........we all know that they often do not...... If everybody tried to live exactly as they wish it would be anarchy.......is that what you want? And I apologize for adding to a sort of political thread.......guess it will get closed....... CB
True ,but i hope you have a few extra thousand to pay a lawyer to see that through in court.I got arrested a few years ago for noise .I was running open headers and made sum racket getting on the freeway (but never broke the speed limit).Problem is they can call the violation and arrest you for what ever they want on the scene.Granted you may beat it all in the end,but its still gunna cost you $$$ for bail and legal expenses.Why stick you with a noise violation when they can call it reckless driving like they did me ? BTW my lawyer got it knocked down from "Reckless Driving" to "Excessive Noise" ,but it took a years worth of time and $1650 to make it happen .All depends on the cop on the scene ,and what mood he is in at the time ...
This proposed law which is based solely on the officers determination is not valid. You must have some standard, i.e. the speed limit or a percentage on window tint. There must be some decible standard to base this law on or else it is invalid.
All i can tell you guys is ,you better hope the cop that stops you got sum the night before and is in a good mood .I got nailed for a noise violation and it stuck with no decible reading and my lawyer couldnt do anything about it.I was told by the DA that it is totally up to the opinion of the cop ."He is a trained expert to the judge and im not".Do yourself a favor and dont find out the hard way like i did ...
I don't know where hoopeston is, perhaps if we knew we could track down the ordinance and see just how it's worded. On the other hand, if it really says "how the officer feels" then maybe you can argue to get it thrown out based on the idea that having a loud car makes you feel good about yourself and the cop shouldn't be able to make you feel bad and ruin your self-esteem just because he doesn't like how it sounds. It is amusing that in CA they're worried about your car being a little louder than original, but it's okay to smoke up as long as you have a prescription for it. But we've known that state's priorities have been ****ed up for 20 or 30 years now. Shocker, sounds like you need a new lawyer, or you need to run for DA and get the ***hole you had to deal with out of office.
In California, there is two ways to get busted. One...state wide, you can get ticketed is you don't have mufflers, or the mufflers aren't working as they should. That's anywher in the state. As far as cities go, each might be different when it comes to noise. Noise ordinances pertain to all noise...saws, lawn mowers, etc. 85 db from 30 feet away is a common rule. To denote a db they are going to have to have a meter and the meter has to have current certification as does a radar gun. If it's noticeable that you don't have mufflers, you're going to have a much worse time than if you just had lousy mufflers. The reason is simple. No mufflers= ticket-time Bad mufflers will at least look like mufflers, so if you cruising are without much throttle, all is well. Just like anything when you are dealing with law enforcement...be cool, be nice...a bad at***ude may be the difference between a verbal warning, an equipment warning, an equipment violation or IMPOUND...and that is very costly. When in a sticky situation, keep your cool and be polite.
Wow, there sure are a lot of armchair lawyers on board. To help dispel the disinformation: It may very well be up to the officer to decide if the noise is loud enough to warrant a citation. There does NOT necessarily need to be a clear cut "X Decibels = ticket" clause.
"District Attorney Shocker" ,hmm i like the sound of that .I make my noise on the drag strip nowdays ,so its all good and no more fines and legal fees involved...
Well, if you're referring to me, the db metering that I was talking about is it's use by a code enforcer and I was talking about the law as it pertains to a City code, not a statewide law such as the vehicle code. OK? And, yes, I do know what I'm talking about. We have such a law in my city and it is enforced by the code enforcement. I am quite familiar with our codes and how they operate. Any violation on the street would be the jurisdiction of the police and they do not need a db meter.
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