After the smoking ban the city says all cops have to issue 2 noise ordinance tickets a month or face the disciplinary board.
That type of policy is a bad idea. If your going to implement it, it would make more sense as part of the performance rating to be considered in promotions or raises, rather than a disciplinary board hearing which implies something unethical and/or illegal about not handing out the tickets. But even as an item of more than the most minuscule importance on a performance rating it provides for perverse incentives. I doubt that running a lawnmower at noon, would be considered sufficiently noisy by any reasonable standard, and even if it would, what if people stop doing that? If the policy was meant to eliminate "noise pollution", well what if it could somehow be eliminated? Would the cops have to give out false tickets, alleging noise that didn't occur. Its just a foolish idea.
The policy makes the most sense, from the perspective of someone who might consider implementing it, if its looked at as a way to make money. If the tickets come with fines, and the fines greatly exceed the cost of adjudicating, processing, and collecting, than it might be successful as a revenue stream. Of course protection rackets can also be successful as a revenue stream.
Its hard to tell how much of the motivation for the plan is a foolish, intrusive nanny state effort to reduce noise, and how much is for revenue (I'd guess that later it a big factor), but either way I can't see hot it can be in the interests of the people of the city. |
