Tuesday, December 19, 2023–4:06 p.m.
-David Crowder, WRGA News-
A pilot program focusing on noise violations in Downtown Rome appears to have paid dividends, putting a proposed noise ordinance on the back burner.
In September, a proposed noise ordinance was presented to the public safety committee that would have made noise that could be heard at 100 feet a violation in the downtown business district, which drew criticism from the owners of several downtown establishments who feared that it would mean no amplified music at all downtown.
Major Rodney Bailey with the Rome Police Department told the city’s public safety committee Tuesday that a recent pilot program focused on enhanced enforcement of the existing ordinance appears to have paid off. During that time, there were only two 911 calls for service regarding noise downtown. One of the calls had to do with a P.A. system and it was never clarified where the noise was coming from. The other was regarding a loud vehicle in the area of the Rome Area History Center.
Year-to-date, 22 cases have been made on Broad Street and 40 cases have been made in other areas of the city, according to Bailey.
“If you go back five or six years before noise was a hot topic, you didn’t see our officers writing citations for noise,” he said. They were focusing on DUIs, reckless driving, running stop signs, and running red lights, but they have been putting some effort, when they have time, to do director patrols or other duties, to enforce those noise ordinances. I think the ordinance that is on the book and the state laws do us well as far as being able to have a tool to manage noise, but we can’t take our foot off the pedal. As soon as you do, it comes right back.”
The police department has been working with the Rome Downtown Development Authority and off-duty police officers have been working security downtown, especially on the weekends.
In addition to handling 29 noise or traffic violations, the off-duty officers also reported 85 interactions with juveniles, 23 interactions with the homeless, and nine arrests. This has reduced the number of calls to 911 and freed up on-duty officers to patrol other areas in the city.
“As far as our staffing goes right now, it’s really hard for us to pull someone out of an area of town to focus on Broad Street,” Bailey said. “As manpower reaches back to fuller levels, we could hopefully start seeing things like the bicycle patrols coming back.”
The issue of noise in the downtown area was brought up during the August 28 Rome City Commission meeting by Mike Schieffer, Bill Harbin, and Ben Levy, all residents of East Fourth Street, who spoke about noise originating from River Remedy on Glen Milner Boulevard.
Rome City Manager Sammy Rich said the main complaints his office gets are regarding loud vehicles, car stereo systems, and loudspeakers. He hasn’t gotten any calls from Between the Rivers regarding live music.
