New data that we’ve just obtained undermines any shred of a justification for the increase in the city’s noise limits that was approved by the City Council in 2023 (see charts above).
Council Member Tasha Diaz, sponsor of the legislation, largely based her proposal on the contention that the police were getting more noise calls because the city has grown and people are living closer together.
Data just provided by the Yonkers Police sinks that argument. Noise calls to the YPD have not been going up. They have been going down. Each year since 2020 both calls and responses to calls have dropped.
In 2023, when Council Member Diaz claims she was getting so many complaints from people subject to unfair noise calls, noise calls and responses dropped by about 9 percent.
They dropped again after the ordinance was changed, but not at a faster rate. Funnily enough, under the new more tolerant ordinance, the number of summonses issued actually went up! It’s not a big number, from 28 to 39, but still rather amusing.
The modern, data-driven YPD has not been keeping data on noise calls. However, I filed a FOIL to obtain the data presented here.
You would think that the City Council would have asked for this data before changing the ordinance. But as we’ve said, their decision was based on one poorly informed ten-minute discussion. Public input, and some consultation with experts, would have been a good idea.
One final observation. It’s also interesting that less than 40 summonses were issued in a year. People got loud in this town only 40 times? Yep.
Love the graphic! Will forward to my Councilwoman!