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Cheyenne council discusses traffic enforcement, noise rules and resource allocation for police
Summary
Council members urged clearer enforcement and exploration of engineering fixes to reduce speeding, drag racing and noise, and discussed possible ordinance changes and resource reallocations for the Cheyenne Police Department (CPD).
Cheyenne City Council members spent extensive time discussing traffic safety, nuisance driving and noise enforcement at a goal‑setting work session. The conversation covered law enforcement resources, possible changes to noise ordinances and non‑enforcement options such as physical traffic calming.
Councilman Layborn described results of a police ride‑along and said enforcement is one element among several needed to reduce dangerous driving: “When we give up our quality of life on the street for, what I would call big city driving, we're giving up one of our best and most important elements of our community,” Layborn said.
Several council members urged clearer standards for excessive noise that place responsibility on the actor rather than a strict decibel threshold. Councilman Bridal said he favored language proposed by the chief that defines “excessive noise” as “offensive to a reasonable person considering the nature of the actor’s conduct,” a standard officers could apply to dangerous motorcycle conduct without strict decibel measurement.
Members also emphasized engineering and design measures. Councilman Seagrave and others recommended contemporary traffic management — speed tables, crosswalk improvements and “complete streets” design — to reduce speeds and improve pedestrian safety. Council members noted operational constraints, including concerns from Public Works about plowing where speed tables exist, and asked staff to investigate modern speed‑calming installations used in other cities.
A repeated theme was resource allocation. Multiple council members said they would not support adding general police headcount unless a defined portion of new resources is committed to traffic control. One councilmember said residents had to call the sheriff because they could not get patrols assigned to recurring problem corridors.
Deliverables and next steps the council requested included a legal and operational review of noise‑ordinance language, a CPD staffing and allocation analysis tied to traffic enforcement, and a study by public works of feasible traffic‑calming installations (speed tables, signage, crosswalk upgrades) for priority corridors. The council set a mid‑summer check‑in for progress on those deliverables.
