The Norwalk Ordinance Committee on Oct. 21 considered a draft ordinance that would authorize randomized photo-noise monitoring devices around the city to detect motor-vehicle noise above 80 decibels but voted not to send the item to public hearing.

Discussion and objections: Several committee members expressed reservations about privacy and the risk that location-based audio/visual data could be misused. Committee member Nora Nojelski Eitner urged caution and cited national reports about license-plate–reader vendors and data-sharing concerns: "There are real potentials for abuse here... Once the data exists... you have no idea what someone's gonna do with their data," she said, noting reports that a vendor’s data had been requested in other jurisdictions.

Other members raised programmatic questions: whether noise enforcement is the most urgent public-safety priority and how the devices would be sited so as not to unfairly target particular neighborhoods. Staff described the devices’ technical operation — imaging the vehicle and capturing a recording that can be reviewed — and said they would be used in a randomized, relocatable way and that footage would be reviewed before citation. Staff and several committee members also flagged the need for contractual data protections if a vendor is used.

Vote and outcome: Committee member Johan moved to take the photo-noise monitoring draft to public hearing; the motion failed. The committee recorded that a majority did not favor moving the draft forward at this time.

Ending: Staff said the item was presented to give the committee an option to consider and that comparable enforcement systems could be evaluated in the future if the committee or council seeks to revisit the issue. Committee members asked that data-sharing, vendor contract protections and site-selection procedures be clarified before any future consideration.