Miami Beach Proposes Noise Detecting Cameras To Target Loud Car Music And Exhaust

If you like rolling down South Beach playing loud music or causing exhaust to come from your car then this article is for you.

Commissioner Steven Meiner hopes to stop both with a proposal to install noise-detecting cameras.

The cameras are to crack down on loud cars in the city, Officer.com reported.

The proposal is scheduled to be voted on at a City Commission meeting Friday and seeks to create a temporary pilot program that will use traffic cameras that have decibel meters to detect loud noises coming from car exhausts or speakers. The cameras will also have the ability to take photos of the offending car’s license plate so that the driver is issued a warning. Drivers would not be ticketed under the pilot program.

“I think it can be a game-changer,” Meiner said.

Meiner added that he is also pushing the proposal after receiving numerous complaints about drivers speeding late at night with modified mufflers that amplify the sound of their car engines.

“This has become a major quality of life issue for our residents,” Meiner said. “It sometimes sounds like bombs going off from the back of their vehicles.”

He also said he would want Miami Beach to model its program on a pilot that Knoxville, Tennesee implemented in February using loaned technology from a British acoustics company.

The cameras in Knoxville take visual and audio recordings when noise levels exceed a pre-set decibel level. There is also a pilot program in New York City.

Meiner said South Beach would be a natural choice for some of the cameras, but he also wants to add them in commercial corridors along North Beach.

His proposal encourages the city to get a limited number of cameras for a trial run at little to no cost to the city, which will see if the study has an impact before deciding whether to permanently install noise detectors.

He said the proposal would go hand in hand with a new Florida law that makes playing loud music from a car illegal if heard from 25 feet away.