Wondering if I should call the cops on my neighbors

[Tama]

I can only imagine the Party Patrol around my town. A route I come back through from the Voldemart is called Party Row (college houses) and I was graciously informed of underage drinking at said residences.

Remind me not to go through that place at night during graduation again...

[Aethian]

MSU uses jr officers in it's party patrol. If your lucky and can get just the right access channel they will post videos that they have broken up the night before. If however it's one if the big home games ie MSU vs UofM then you get full fledged cops knocking on your door.

[Gravekeeper]

I can only imagine the Party Patrol around my town. A route I come back through from the Voldemart is called Party Row (college houses) and I was graciously informed of underage drinking at said residences.

Thats the other reason cops actually like party patrol. If you're stupid enough to be having a drunken party on your law at 3am chances are you're stupid enough to be breaking a few other laws as well. -.-

[Jester]

Hi! My name is Gravekeeper...

...and it might be a sin, but I'll take that bet, you're gonna regret, cause I'm the best that's ever been!

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

Practically every municipality has noise ordinances and bylaws so yes, being a noisy asshole is technically illegal.

Point taken. And you're right. I stand....er, uh, sit corrected. With a beer. And fish. But still corrected.

As for the police, there are for example bylaw enforcement officers that specifically handle these things.

In some cities, yes. In some cities, no. Here in KW, for examples, we do have code compliance officers, which are basically bureaucrats, and they will often respond to noise violations. But as often as not, they will either be accompanied by actual police, or the police will respond without them.

Back home in Tempe, which is not just a college town but home to the Greatest Party School of All Time, every time my roommates and I threw parties and there were noise complaints, the knock on the door was from the boys in blue. If Tempe has such code or bylaw officers, they sure as heck don't work nights. Or at least, they didn't back then. (And we lived half a mile from campus, so it's not like we were out of the party zone or anything.)

The one exception to the above was if it was a noise complaint in the dorms, where I lived for two years. In those cases, it was usually just an RA or some other student working at the dorm who could come around and tell us to "Knock it the fuck off!"

You're not taking away the police from more important things. They have a system to handle various priorities of calls with different types of officers. An officer isn't going to respond to a noise complaint while ignoring a stabbing somewhere.

True, to a degree. No cop is going to leave a violent crime scene or not go to one because of a noise complaint. But when they are dealing with noise complaints, other nefarious ne'er-do-wells very likely could be up to some mischief in areas the responding officers would normally be patrolling. But yeah, for the most part, you are correct, and once again, I sip corrected.

Many police departments actually have a specific Party Patrol(tm) for just this purpose. ( And yes, its called the party patrol and no its probably not as fun as it sounds. )

Never seen one. Vancouver must be quite the scene.

That being said, during Fantasy Fest, we DO have volunteer "Madness Monitors," but they really just verbally tell people to keep it in their pants. Sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally.

After all, sometimes the Devil deals it hard.

[MoonCat]

Little story from my old neighborhood:

Once upon a time a bunch of assholes decided to have a party starting at 11:30 PM. Yes. STARTING at 11:30. They moved their stereo outside onto the porch. It was about, oh, maybe 40F at the time, but drunks don't care.

Much loud music, yelling and partying ensued. Cops were called. Warnings were given. Apologies were made. Cops drove slowly away.....noise resumed.....cops, not being stupid, drove back up the street and said, no joke, dudes, wrap it up NOW or someone goes to jail. Party slowly, grugingly, wound down. More or less.

Two hours later, the assholes were fighting in the street with broken bottles. Much screaming, swearing and breaking of glass later, someone did indeed go to jail.

And I took a sick day at work that morning because between the initial party and the, ahem, after-party, I literally got NO sleep until about 6 AM, 2-1/2 hours before I would have to be at work.

[Jester]

It's stuff like the above story that made even my dumbass 20-23 year old self know how to deal with throwing parties. (I lived in the dorms from 18-20.) Since we didn't want to piss any of our neighbors off or get the cops involved, any time my roommates and I were planning a party, we would go around to our neighbors several days ahead of time, inviting them to said party, and politely asking them to come talk to us first if our party disturbed them. Which usually worked. But since not all neighbors are as polite as we were, and since we weren't always able to get every neighbor at home, occasionally the cops were called. And when they were, we were very polite with them, promised them we would tone it down, and would go back inside and tell everyone to CHILL THE FUCK OUT. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn't. But we never got cited, we never were arrested (for our parties, anyways), and only once or twice did the cops make a return visit to our domicile. And if anyone was majorly loud asshole douchebag, as in beyond the norm for an apartment party, WE'D throw them the fuck out. No (intentional) broken bottles, no (physical) fights, no arrests. Because we may have been young and rowdy and stupid, but we weren't THAT stupid.

[Gravekeeper]

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

><

In some cities, yes. In some cities, no. Here in KW, for examples, we do have code compliance officers, which are basically bureaucrats, and they will often respond to noise violations. But as often as not, they will either be accompanied by actual police, or the police will respond without them.

It can vary. I don't know what bylaw officers look like down there though. Up here they still look like cops and have their own police vehicles. But they say Peace Officer instead of police on the side and their uniforms have a different badge / crest.

There's basically 5 different types of officers wandering about here: Police, RCMP, Peace Officers, Animal Welfare / Control Officers and the Engineering & Environmental Officers. Depending on whats going on, you'll get 1 of the 5.

Stupid loud parties will be the police, RCMP or a PO depending on where you are and whose closest. POs will handle parties and the party patrol. But anything that sounds domestic obviously gets the police or RCMP.

Loud animals or animals in distress get you a visit from the Animal Welfare officers. ( And subsequently arrested for being a dick to your dog. ). I was a dispatcher for these guys at work afterhours for 2 municipalities. They work jointly with the SPCA officers which gets a bit confusing for some people. Since the two handle different kinds of animals and scenarios.

Any other sort of noise of the non-party variety. Such as construction noise, vehicle noise / alarms, equipment noise, etc gets you a visit by the Engineer Officers. Any noise disturbing the peace that doesn't fit any other category and these guys show up.

Never seen one. Vancouver must be quite the scene.

<Points to his 6 years worth of posts from this city.> Mhmm. -.-

That being said, during Fantasy Fest, we DO have volunteer "Madness Monitors," but they really just verbally tell people to keep it in their pants. Sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally.

Okay that we don't have.

[protege]

It is illegal after 10:00 pm and I have been told to call the cops by both this management team and the previous one.

It's illegal after 10PM here too. Most people don't care about noise before 9:59. But once the 1-0-0-0 appears, it's time to shut the hell up.

There's a kid across the street from me that has earned the hatred of everyone else on the block. Why? Because when his mom tells him to come in...he starts screaming. I've had my house completely closed up in the middle of winter, and I can still hear him. So then his dad will start screaming...until dad comes out, grabs the kid, and forces him inside. Then they'll yell at each other a few minutes, until the kid goes upstairs to his room. Does it stop there? Fuck no.

He only gets louder. Then, he starts pounding on the window! Not the *frame,* mind you...but the *glass* screaming his head off the entire time.

In fact, during one of his tantrums, he managed to piss off the old guy (who works nights) next door, who promptly lost it. He not only called the cops but told the kid's mom "Laura, shut your damn kid up, or I'll do it for you." Cops came, cited the parents for the noise, and left.

That kid has had several other tantrums--which have received police attention--but that was his last one after 10PM.

[Jester]

It can vary. I don't know what bylaw officers look like down there though.

Basically like health inspectors. Pants, polo shirt, maybe a radio, definitely a clipboard. Definitely not cop uniforms, or even parking enforcement uniforms.

There's basically 5 different types of officers wandering about here: Police, RCMP, Peace Officers, Animal Welfare / Control Officers and the Engineering & Environmental Officers. Depending on whats going on, you'll get 1 of the 5.

Every place has a variety of enforcement officers. Here we have KW cops, Monroe County Sheriff Officers (they run they jails and patrol the country roads), Border Patrol, Navy cops, and often various others from the state, such as Florida Fish & Game, and from other military branches, including the Coast Guard, as in addition to the Naval Air Station, we also have a Coast Guard base.

<Points to his 6 years worth of posts from this city.> Mhmm. -.-

Which was part of my point.

Okay that we don't have.

Well of course not. Because you don't have Fantasy Fest. Which no one does. Although it wouldn't surprise me if other places with similar festivals (New Orleans with Mardi Gras and Rio with Carnival, for example) have similar volunteers to keep things moving and on the up and up.

[BlaqueKatt]

It's an iffy call. The police actually have long stretches of nothing to do but drive around. It's feast or famine. But they don't like these kinds of calls because they're not sexy, they're not criminal, and they're unlikely to generate an arrest. They really don't want to mediate neighborhood disputes, even though they're tasked with enforcing the laws that are designed to keep neighbors from killing each other.

Depends on the officer, I had one respond that wrote his personal cell on his card because he actually liked the "non glamorous" calls*, and being that he worked nights he had trouble with his neighbours being quiet while he was sleeping.

* he labeled himself a "peace officer" and according to him he was mainly about enforcing the "peace and quiet"

[Food Lady]

We'll see how it goes tonight. They're out there again.

[Sapphire Silk]

Depends on the officer, I had one respond that wrote his personal cell on his card because he actually liked the "non glamorous" calls*, and being that he worked nights he had trouble with his neighbours being quiet while he was sleeping.

* he labeled himself a "peace officer" and according to him he was mainly about enforcing the "peace and quiet"

MY kind of officer. He rocks!

[wolfie]

...and it might be a sin, but I'll take that bet, you're gonna regret, cause I'm the best that's ever been!

(snip)

After all, sometimes the Devil deals it hard.

Looks like you're misquoting Charlie Daniels. You're supposed to play your fiddle hard (which, of course, would lead to noise complaints from the neighbours), and the Devil deals the cards.

BTW, Kia dealers in Atlanta DEFINITELY don't want the devil to show up on their property.

[Jester]

Looks like you're misquoting Charlie Daniels. You're supposed to play your fiddle hard (which, of course, would lead to noise complaints from the neighbours), and the Devil deals the cards.

I thought you were misremembering the lyrics, as I was quite sure it was "the Devil deals it hard." But when I went to look up the lyrics to confirm this, a funny thing happened: I found both versions. So I listened to the song, and in that part, well, it could be either one. Now, obviously it's one or the other, and I've always thought that it was the way I originally stated it, but I can't say for sure that I am right or that you are, as I could not find any authoritative source on the net for either one.

Curious.

[Tama]

I'd say go with 'deals the cards', that's the version I always hear on the radio.