Hamilton Police Chief Working on Update of Noise Bylaw

Hamilton’s current noise bylaw requires police take someone to court in order to enforce the bylaw.

That’s just one of several issues with the “very vague, not workable,” current noise bylaw, Hamilton Police Chief Russ Stevens told selectmen Monday night. The chief is in the process of rewriting that bylaw and appeared at the board of selectmen meeting to hear recommendations and suggestions on his first draft of the rewrite.

“We have an existing noise bylaw,” Stevens explained. ”The existing noise bylaw is very broad and it’s not very workable. What I was trying to do is narrow it down to make it more transparent, so it’s detailed, it’s specific as to what we’re looking for.”

Stevens explained that officers currently do their best to warn residents, asking them once or twice to control the noise, before the situation is recorded as a noise bylaw violation. If it does reach the point of a violation, officers have no recourse expect to summons the individuals to court

“Our existing bylaw requires us that if I’m going to use our noise bylaw, I have to summons you to court,” Stevens said. “Our bylaw should be a little bit friendlier than that, it should be a fine issue.”

Stevens explained that the bylaw should provide an option for issuing tickets rather than summonses.

Additionally, the current bylaw lists the police chief as the hearing officer, meaning the chief would be required to serve as the deciding party should one of his officers issue a ticket. It’s a situation the chief called, “not transparent” and said his rewritten bylaw names the town manager as the hearing officer.

The new bylaw would maintain the current time frame of 7 a.m.-9 p.m. for regular noises (yard work, vehicle maintenance, dumpsters being emptied, etc.). The fine for a first violation also remains at $100. Stevens explained that the new bylaw would still provide the option for officers to issue warnings and use their discretion before issuing the ticket.

Selectmen said they would schedule a public hearing as part of one of their upcoming meetings and it would also be discussed during the upcoming Special Town Meeting warrant hearing before heading to the floor for a vote in November.