Police say muffler ordinance, not decibel meters, is practical tool for loud‑vehicle enforcement

Laramie police briefed the City Council on Nov. 25 about how they handle complaints of loud vehicles and why the department rarely uses the city’s decibel‑based noise code in favor of a practical traffic‑code muffler standard.

Assistant Chief Ton Smith told council that city records show roughly 30 loud‑vehicle complaints in 2023, 35 in 2024 and 20 through September 2025, while citations under the vehicle/muffler regulation were 6, 1 and 3 over the same periods. Smith said dispatch‑to‑response delays frequently mean officers cannot locate the vehicle and thus cannot issue a citation.

Smith explained two enforcement paths: Chapter 8’s decibel‑based noise ordinance requires calibrated ANSI‑standard sound meters, measurements at 25 feet, a wind limit of 5 miles per hour and certified operators — all rules that are difficult to meet in the field and to defend in court. By contrast, the traffic‑code muffler provision requires only that an officer observe that a vehicle’s noise is “excessive or unusual,” making it a more workable tool for everyday enforcement.

“Under the muffler ordinance…an officer has to observe the noise and say that it is excessive or unusual,” Smith said. He added that the Chapter 8 approach would require buying costly equipment (up to several thousand dollars per device under ANSI standards) and training every officer to a 24‑hour certification course, which staff estimated would be a six‑figure startup cost to deploy across the force.

Smith also provided context from traffic data: using 2023 average‑daily‑traffic estimates from a YDOT study, city engineering staff calculated about 1,270,000,000 annual vehicle traversals on city streets — a point Smith used to frame why complaint totals are small relative to total vehicle movements.

Councilors asked practical questions about enforcement: whether callers should still report incidents (Smith urged it), whether a city could pilot meters or invest in devices (staff said costs and logistics make that difficult), and whether additional ordinance language like Cheyenne’s new law would help (Smith said Cheyenne’s recent changes are largely similar to Laramie’s muffler language and that officers already have discretion to judge "unreasonable noise").

A public commenter, Christopher Stratton, urged more on‑the‑ground enforcement near dorms and the strip, saying recurring muffler noise is disruptive in neighborhoods.

The council did not adopt ordinance changes at the Nov. 25 work session; staff offered to follow up with the city attorney and present options if council wants language similar to Cheyenne’s new ordinance.

Sources: Presentation by Assistant Chief Ton Smith and public comment recorded at the Nov. 25, 2025 work session.