Can you hear it? It's Spring Quarter: time for outdoor partying
David Laber, Athens NEWS Writer
April 11, 2005
One of the appealing aspects of moving out of a residence hall and into an off campus rental house is the ability to host parties, but with that opportunity comes the risk of getting cited for violating the city's noise ordinance.
Recently, the noise ordinance has come under fire from the Ohio University Center for Legal Advocacy and the OU Student Senate. Earlier this year, Student Senate began an effort to collect 10,000 signatures for a petition to amend the noise ordinance to require police to give party hosts a warning on the first noise complaint.
In fact, Athens County Municipal Court Judge William Grim was asked to rule on the legality of the noise ordinance in 2004. He ruled the ordinance is not unconstitutional for being vague, but he cited some concerns about the language forbidding "loud or unusual noise."
"How does one determine or measure 'unusual'?" Grim asked in his ruling. However, he also he wrote that loudness has a defined decibel level in the ordinance as well as a more applicable test of being able to clearly hear the noise 50 feet away from the source.
With a representative from the legal advocacy center, Student Senate had planned on presenting the amendment and petition to Athens City Council before spring quarter. That did not happen, but Senate President Kristen Jensen said the student organization plans to continue to pursue the change.
One of the driving forces behind the amendment is the belief that there has been an increase in the number of noise violations over the years based on Municipal Court data (about 170 violations in 2004 compared to about 100 violations in 2003).
But according to the Athens Police Department's records, the number of noise complaints has remained fairly consistent over the past four years (2001 through 2004) ranging from about 750 calls to almost 1,000 calls in one year.
And police data indicates that in most of 2004's noise complaints, the alleged offenders were not cited.
In fact, only about 20 percent of the 834 noise complaints resulted in a citation, according to the data, and in about one third of the complaints, the party hosts received a warning.
Athens Police Capt. Tom Pyle said he believes that most of the people in that 20 percent have been given several warnings and tend to be repeat offenders. While he does not have data to prove that assessment, he said this is something the department wants to investigate.
For a party host to receive a citation on the first complaint, Pyle said the party probably would be "egregious" in violating the city code by playing the stereo so loud that it can be heard from three blocks away; the party runs until the early hours of Sunday or a week day; or the department receives several complaints about the party in a short period of time.
In the other noise complaint cases in 2004, about 10 percent were unfounded, about 27 percent were cleared without an arrest, and no result was listed for the remaining 10 percent of the cases.
Pyle said most of the complaints come from mixed student/town neighborhoods such as Brown, Lancaster, Morris and North Congress streets, as opposed to predominately student neighborhoods such as Mill, Palmer and Stewart streets; however, those streets do have some noise complaints, too, he said.
Police data also show that spring quarter is usually the busiest time for police in terms of receiving noise complaints, with fall quarter not too far behind.
Pyle said noise violations are almost always the result of a noise complaint from a neighbor and not from police officers cruising the neighborhood and hearing the loud party themselves.
"The complaint is what bolsters the action," Pyle said.
Given that most, if not all, violations are the result of a complaining neighbor, it can be beneficial to talk with neighbors beforehand, "but some people don't like confrontation," Pyle noted.
Many times, alleged noise offenders will complain to police officers that they had asked neighbors to call them before calling the police, he said, but to avoid the confrontation, neighbors will call the police instead.
Other tips to avoid having the police called out to a loud party are to take into consideration how late the party runs and on what day of the week the party is being hosted.
"People might be more willing to put up with a loud party at 3 a.m. if they are not working the next day," Pyle said.
But if a party's music is shaking a neighbor's walls at 5 a.m. on a Wednesday, "there's gonna be a complaint," he said.
WHEN POLICE ARRIVE at a house party, the officers will ask for the person responsible for the loud noise or for a resident, Pyle said.
If as approaching the house, several revelers in the yard or front porch run into the house, that usually is an indication that underage drinking is occurring at the party and could serve as a reasonable suspicion to begin citing underage drinkers, he said. Otherwise, police arriving at a party are not looking for other potential violations.
Usually, if a noise citation is involved, only one resident is cited, Pyle said. "We offer advice to pass the hat for the $100 fine to get help paying it off," he added.
But as long as the alleged offenders are "polite and cooperative, chances are they won't get a citation," he said.
If a party host is cited for a noise violation, he or she should take precautions to avoid another citation. If cited a second time within a six-month period, the host could be charged with a fourth degree misdemeanor and be arrested and transported to jail, Pyle said.
"You can go to jail just for playing your stereo too loud," he said, but this happens only three to five times per year and involves people who have repeatedly been a problem.
Party hosts should know, however, that the police are not looking forward to breaking up parties, Pyle said.
"The police department would really like the students to know we're not against them having a good time," he said. "In fact, we want them to have a good time. But they need to be civic minded."
As long as party hosts are courteous and good neighbors, "they'll never see a police officer at their parties," Pyle said.
For more information about students' rights for house parties, visit www.studentlegalrights.org/partyguide.shtml.
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