Many Bronxites across the borough are patiently waiting for the cold weather to arrive so that those prone to carousing outside, blasting loud music from speakers, while in the parks or in cars, will gradually move indoors, and badly affected neighborhoods will return to the once peaceful communities they used to be.

 

For years, despite hundreds of noise complaints sent to 311 by Bronxites across the borough, meetings with elected officials, and enforcement by NYPD officers, the goal of eliminating unwanted noise, particularly over the summer months, has remained elusive. Now, however, a new law, along with new technology, could give the NYPD an additional tool with which to tackle the issue.

 

In two Twitter posts from the NYPD’s 52nd precinct on July 12 and 13, the command confirmed the confiscation of two very large “smart” speakers. An unnamed NYPD spokesperson said of the incident, “Officers responded to 311 calls of community complaints on the evening of July 11 at Harris Field and (the) evening of July 12 at (Hall of) Fame Terrace and Aqueduct Avenue, where the pictured speakers were confiscated and a summons for unreasonable noise was issued each night.”

For some residents, it seemed as though regular offenders never seemed short of equipment, however. When asked what the procedure was for getting property like a radio or a speaker back, following the issuance of a summons or a fine, the NYPD did not immediately respond to our requests. However, Officer Cepeda from the 52nd precinct subsequently provided an update during the Bronx Community Board 7 meeting on public safety, held Thursday, Sept. 9.

 

“As far as anything we seize, it’s going to either be, depending on what the summons is….it could either be evidence for when they show up to court, whether it be any portable device that plays music, [and] after that case is administered or whatever happens from that, they have the option of getting it back,” he said.

Van Cortlandt Village resident, Alan Katz, had been complaining about the loud music at Harris Field for weeks. On July 18, Katz told the Norwood News, “One time, there were ten men standing by a car listening to music from an external amplified speaker.” He added, “As long as mother nature causes steady, constant rain, it will be quiet, but once the sun comes out, before the grass is dry, they are immediately back playing loud music.”

 

Referring to a news article about the NYPD addressing noise control in his neighborhood, Katz, a 30-year, local resident, fumed, “The 52nd Precinct did not confiscate any speakers, and the music went on unstopped at Harris Park for hours.” He added, “All the police do is quickly pass by, quickly making a yelp. They are not confiscating the speakers, because last Sunday [Sept. 5], the loud music was constant until 10 p.m., when they decided to leave.”

 

Katz said police only responded after his 8th call to 311 on Sept. 5, and added that the offenders were back again to the same area on Labor Day, Monday Sept. 6. (He later said that on the night of Sept. 11, Harris Park became “a block party,” with eight individual amplified speakers blasting loud music, with extra lighting around the giant field. Once again, he said he made a 311 complaint but it was closed as police reportedly found no evidence of noise.)

 

After calls to all his local elected officials, Katz continued, “I attempted to reach the 52nd Precinct without success. I have left two voicemails with the 52nd Precinct Community Affairs that were not returned. One night I called the 52nd Precinct and it rang 30 times and was not answered. I just hung up.”

On a subsequent night, Katz recalled that a police officer did him call back, saying he believed the only reason he did so was  because the 311 operator had erroneously listed Katz’s noise complaint location as the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, and the police officer called to double-check the address. Katz added, “It was so peaceful here until April.”

 

On yet another night, Katz said the music continued until 2.45 a.m. in his neighborhood. The end result, Katz said, was a message from a 311 operator which said, “Police were on the scene and found no evidence of the complaint.” Katz fumed, “The music was blasting for several hours.” He said he believes the only way officers didn’t hear it is if they never responded to the call. “I do not mind public gatherings, but music heard five blocks away is totally inappropriate,” he said.

 

An additional confiscation was confirmed via a 52nd Precinct tweet at 10:30 p.m. on September 21.

 

Other residents told the Norwood News that their complaints to 311 had been ignored or were told by police that no noise problem existed.

Back on June 4, a longtime female resident and local worker on the Gun Hill Road side of Van Cortlandt Park, who declined to be identified, and who had also been complaining for months about loud music, told the Norwood News how, at the beginning of spring, offenders would enter Van Cortlandt Park and play music until sunrise.

 

The resident said that after receiving complaints from the community, police began evacuating the park at 10 p.m., and then, the group of mostly young men would stand around the vicinity of the park, sitting on cars, or on the park wall along West Gun Hill Road, and continue to play their music.

 

The resident said, “The cops would come back again, and they eventually got tired of it and they’d leave.” She added, “They come with the cars and they take the speakers out of the car and they bring these illegal speakers in the park and they put it so loud! It’s disgusting!” She continued, “My friend lives in the middle of the block, three buildings down and he can hear it in his room, clearly.”

 

The resident recalled how the offenders would go into the park with a generator and would even bring a lamp with them. Another resident complained that one such group stays until 5 a.m. on the other side of Van Cortlandt Park, near Amalgamated Houses.

 

“Sometimes I can’t hear my T.V.,” she continued. “That’s how loud the music is in the park.” She concluded, “I don’t know if you’re aware, they [the cars] are being made with these speakers. Do you see these speakers they’re putting into cars? They started doing this about two summers ago and you’d see it all over the (Washington) Heights, but now we’re seeing it here.”

 

Vibe has reported on this trend of installing several speakers in cars and other vehicles, as it became the subject of a recent documentary. User group, “team_viruz” frequently post about cars which contain such elaborate speaker systems on their instagram page. The same group also posts updates on Facebook.

 

In terms of enforcement, during the 52nd Precinct Community Council meeting held on May 27, Deputy Inspector Thomas Alps spoke of the interactions between police officers and members of the public when addressing such noise complaints in public places, telling residents, “These stops are confrontational,” he said. They’re dangerous. They’re at great risk to officers.”

 

Recalling two specific incidents in May, Alps told the crowd, “So, we seized a speaker the other day. We go on Morris (Ave), we had the same thing: a lot of lip service. We try and reason, we try and say, ‘Hey, please… It’s one o’clock in the morning on a Sunday. It’s God’s day, give the residents a break.” In response, one community member, present at the meeting, shouted, “Amen.”

 

The NYPD confirmed in a separate tweet that a series of additional speaker confiscations took place on Sunday, Aug. 15, including that of a giant, 6-foot speaker from the area of Mosholu Parkway and Webster Avenue.

The resident who made the complaint told the Norwood News on August 26, “They gave [out] summonses, and confiscated every sound system on the parkway.” The resident added, “It’s been quiet ever since. I was finally heard.”

 

On Thursday, Aug. 27, Manhattan Councilman Ben Kallos (C.D. 5) introduced a bill that would introduce “automated noise enforcement” by setting up “microphone triangulation.” The new technology is reported to be so good, it can detect a single vehicle blasting music or with an extremely loud muffler, isolate the sound of that vehicle.

 

The current plan is for cameras to snap a photo of the offending vehicle and then send a summons to its owner. If passed, fines would start at $150, and would go as high as $1,050 for a third offense. In an email to constituents on Aug. 31, Kallos said, “Noise has been a top complaint since I took office in 2014, and we remain committed to making our streets quieter.”

 

Citing figures obtained from 311, WABC-TV recently reported that 51,000 noise complaints were received across the five boroughs since Jan. 1, 2021. Norwood News has attempted to download data for the Bronx on different occasions. However,  the volume of complaints appears to trigger the system to time out.