Disturbing the Peace Laws Explained: What Counts as Playing Loud Music

What Counts as Disturbing the Peace

Disturbing the peace, a common nuisance offense in most jurisdictions, is often called disorderly conduct, public disturbance, noise ordinance violations or breach of the peace. This is a crime of limited purpose whereby the government seeks to protect the right to public order. Each state has its own statute outlining what constitutes this crime—primarily falling into two categories.

1. This type of disturbing the peace crime is not defined in detail by statute; instead, the relevant statute describes it generically as related to public disturbance, generally involving conduct that would disrupt or tend to disrupt the peace and safety of the public.
2. Disturbing the peace laws encourage and enforce sobriety in the places covered under the law. They prohibit acts of public intoxication in places such as streets, highways and private property. In most states, disturbing the peace is a misdemeanor offense , while in some it can be categorized as a felony. Disturbing the peace is considered a minor crime in most states but is often accompanied by another more serious charge, such as drunk driving or disorderly conduct.

Common behaviors entailing disturbing the peace charges include:
• Being Boisterous: Boisterousness is the most common threat to cause a public disturbance and is the leading cause of arrests in New York.
• Impeding Traffic: Impeding traffic (stopping vehicle traffic) can be viewed as a form of obstruction of public movements. The act of impeding traffic can be considered an intentional privacy impairment, which is a misdemeanor in many jurisdictions.
• Hooping: One of the more common behaviors leading to the accumulation of noise pollution in the city, this offense includes those who sing uninhibitedly in public areas, often in violation of noise ordinances for the time and place.

Playing Loud Music and The Law

Disturbing the Peace refers to a variety of offenses, and in many states, playing music loudly is legally classified as a crime against the peace. Under these laws, it is not exactly a matter of playing music too loudly, but rather how it is played. For example, it is not a crime to play your car stereo at a loud volume, but if you play the same music very loudly while driving around city block oblivious to the context in which you are playing the music – that is Disturbing the Peace.
Loud music that can be heard through a closed window, or by the neighbors is illegal under Disturbing the Peace laws in many states. In order for the law to be broken, however, the music must be unreasonable in its volume. The bottom line is that if you’re driving around a neighborhood with the car stereo blasting, you’re probably breaking the law.
In order to be subject to arrest or criminal penalties, police will usually conduct some sort of investigation before deciding to bring you in. They will note the time of night that you’re playing the music, how long it has been going on for, and who the occupants of the homes are where they have checked on the inner-room noise. If the music is playing at 1 A.M., or 2 A.M., and the people are home and have called in noise complaints, then the police have a reasonable amount of evidence that you were Disturbing the Peace, and immediate action is usually taken.
The facts surrounding the incident are everything because whether noise is shy of the threshold required to warrant an arrest is highly subjective. When it comes to legal prosecutions for violating noise ordinances that relate to music, proving actual harm or damage to either person, property, or the environment is almost always required. When there is no harm present, there is little reason to issue a citation.

Fines and Penalties for Noise Violations

Depending on local noise ordinances, there may be several different penalties for violating disturbing the peace laws with loud music. In some instances, police may simply issue a warning to the offender. However, warnings are usually only given when the offender has no previous noise complaints. If the noise offense is more severe or repeated, law enforcement may issue a fine. Even in the most serious instances, offenders are rarely jailed. If jail time is an option, potential jail sentences will usually be short. For example, a judge might sentence an offender to serve up to 90 days for violating local laws regarding excessive noise. In addition to fines or jail time, a judge may order violators of disturbing the peace laws to perform community service. This too will usually be fairly minimal, with the typical amount of ordered community service being around 10 hours.

Rights and Defenses Against Noise Violations

If someone has been accused of causing a disturbance of the peace with a loud noise, like most criminal offenses, there are certain protections available. First, as with any criminal charge, the individual is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Therefore, without the burden of proof on the party alleging a disturbance, the accusation alone is not enough to sustain a conviction. This means that a mere noise complaint, for example, does not automatically lead to criminal liability.
The person being charged with a crime also has the right to legal counsel. The individual does not have to represent themselves. An attorney brings knowledge of the law and criminal procedure to the case, and can ensure that the charges are handled properly. Presumably, the party filing the complaint will have their own attorney, in which case the defendant should have their own attorney to level the playing field.
The accused has the right to confront a witness. A party complaining about a disturbing noise can’t just say that they heard loud music without having to prove where it came from , or how they know who was responsible. For example, the inference that a person blasting music in their front yard was the source of the noise is not alone enough to sustain a charge. The accusing party must show they were at a given location when a noise occurred, and that the person named in the complaint was the individual responsible. This is especially true if the complaint is unrelated to a police officer, as a police officer is not a witness when someone complains about loud music in a front yard.
Saying "it was an accident" is not a defense to disturbing the peace. There is no exception to liability in these cases for loud music that was not intended to be loud. Even if the music was blasting by mistake, a person could still be found to have caused a disturbance in the peace under disturbing the peace laws.

Community Laws and Noise Ordinances

Loud music frequently falls under noise ordinances of a community, although not necessarily. Disturbing the peace is usually based on actual disturbances and ordinances that apply to doing so. Cities or communities may have noise ordinances that are effective within their city limits and locations rather than just noise ordinances in general for a given county. For example, city noise ordinances would only apply within the city and not in the county as a whole, possibly barring disturbance outside city limits. Some states impose noise standards for certain facilities, like airplane noise, and municipalities might adopt such standards through a noise ordinance as well. Local rules vary, so it is important to be mindful of all guidelines that may apply to certain situations. For example, if a freight yard has a small residential area near it, noise ordinances may not be the same in the two locations. Some cities require permit applications to hold outdoor events or concerts with large music speakers. If approved, even equipment may be subject to restrictions. Inquire about what rules apply to outdoor activities and see if special permits are needed. In many places, there are no restrictions on music that is played indoors in private residences, provided it is not considered a tenant-landlord issue.

How to Avoid Legal Action for Loud Music

To avoid becoming a target for peace disturbance complaints, it is critical to understand the different ways that an audio experience can interrupt the quiet of a community. For example, if your musical enjoyment is abstract (i.e., a simple looping click track with no tonal center), then with each repetition your sound waves are exactly the same. As such, little feedback exists to those listening, and concern that your audio experience will disturb others is at a minimum. On the other hand, if your musical experience features many tonal centers, such as a complete musical ensemble where the tonal center evolves with each new note being played, an entirely different situation occurs. First, such an audio experience may be difficult to locate, so while someone may hear it, they may not be able to determine the source of the sound. Second, because of the many tonal centers and the fact that each note of a musical piece might last for several minutes during an engineered music-making session, regulations about sound decibels affecting disturbances to the peace may also come into play. A few practical tips can really help reduce the likelihood that your music will disturb the peace. Keep in mind that these recommendations focus on the likelihood of disturbing the peace of your neighbors – which encompasses both noise complaints and possible civil or criminal charges against you. Elevation is a serious issue when it comes to disturbing the peace. Sound traveling from a height such as a balcony or a second-floor entryway is more easily dispersed in many ways than sound coming from ground level. It is almost impossible to predict where sound will go once it’s released into the environment , but considerations of elevation issues can help. For example, those who suspect that their balcony-centric sound sources may result in significant disturbances to the quiet of a neighborhood may be better off playing their audio at low volumes while standing in the corner of their living room instead of on an elevated ground floor balcony. Those awakeable partiers whose musical enjoyment takes place on a high rise rooftop balcony may be better served by considering whether some of this enjoyment could take place instead in a basement lounge area. Choosing the times that you play music can be vitally important. Generally speaking, in all circumstances, late night music playing is at great risk of violating noise ordinances that govern sounds that occur after midnight or 11pm, depending on local or state laws. In addition, in most neighborhoods, Fridays and Saturdays are considered the best choices for late night parties because all residents know that these are the peak social days of the week. On all other nights, party hosts should strictly limit their musical enjoyment to daytime hours, regardless of whether they are being polite or simply obeying the law. The noise is louder at night, and while parties with loud music ending early in the day can be comprehended as being over at a reasonable hour, parties with loud music that extend into the dark hours of the night are far more likely to disturb others.