Laramie Police Rely on Muffler Rule, Cite Limits of Decibel Law

Assistant Chief Tom Smith told the Laramie City Council on November 25 that the department favors enforcing the traffic code muffler provision because it is simpler to apply than the Chapter 8 decibel ordinance. The muffler rule allows officers to cite a vehicle observed to have an "excessive or unusual" noise or a malfunctioning or altered exhaust. By contrast the decibel ordinance requires measurements at 25 feet with ANSI standard sound meters operated by certified officers, environmental conditions including wind under five miles per hour, and rules about allowable decibel increases within a 15 minute window. Those technical and training requirements make routine enforcement difficult to sustain.

City data presented at the briefing showed 30 loud vehicle complaints in 2023, 35 in 2024, and 20 through the third quarter of 2025. Citations for loud vehicles numbered six in 2023, one in 2024, and three through the third quarter of 2025. Assistant Chief Smith and staff framed those figures as evidence of both community concern and practical limits on the department's ability to convert complaints into decibel based citations.

Cost considerations were central to the discussion. ANSI compliant sound meters run roughly two thousand to six thousand dollars each and require certification training of about 24 hours per operator. Staff estimated that deployment across the department and the required training would exceed one hundred thousand dollars. Because of those costs and operational constraints the department is not proposing ordinance changes this session, but staff did present tradeoffs for council consideration and referenced Cheyenne’s recently adopted "unreasonable noise" language as a possible model for future revisions.

Public comment included a resident describing recurring nightly revving near student housing. Staff encouraged residents to call dispatch so directed patrols can be increased. For Laramie officials the decision is now a policy question about how to balance precision enforcement, budget priorities, and community expectations. Any move toward a decibel based regime would require funding for equipment and certification, clear protocols for measurements, and a plan to ensure consistent application across neighborhoods.