Yet another great idea to assist the victims of boom cars

4/3/2007 NEW BRITAIN - With winter over and spring finally showing itself, it's that time of the year when the temperature is just right for road trips and driving with the windows down.
However, the police department wants all drivers to be courteous to those around them and make sure to keep their music down.

The department's traffic-safety bureau will be initiating its Operation NABSSTER program (Noise Abatement by Seizing Stereos) to cut down on the noise complaints made by fed-up residents.

"It's annoying and it's a primary complaint of neighborhood watches," said Sgt. Gary Chute, supervisor of the traffic-safety bureau. "This program has been established in response to community requests."

Chute said sometimes music played in a car can be so loud that it rattles peoples' windows when the car drives by and disturbs those trying to sleep late at night.

He added that it also affects the quality of life in a neighborhood.
When an offender is pulled over, he or she can be charged with breach of peace and given a summons to appear in court. Officers can also seize various equipment from the offender - from the stereo face plate all the way up to the car itself, Chute said.

When the equipment is seized, police can ask the court to claim the seized items as a nuisance and have them destroyed.
To catch offenders, police use a laser measuring device to determine how far away the vehicle is in comparison to the decibels of the music.

Officers also use their own judgment when they hear unreasonably loud music coming from a vehicle.
Typically, music played in a car shouldn't be heard by those outside a 50-foot radius, Chute said.
Last year during their NABSSTER program, police arrested 10 people in an eight-hour time span for breaching the peace.
Chute said playing music too loudly in a car is dangerous because drivers are unable to hear what's going on around them, such as road-hazard alerts and other vehicles.

"It also inhibits your ability to hear emergency-vehicle sirens," he said.