Salisbury, NC

Loud music has to go in China Grove

By Mark Wineka: mwineka@salisburypost.com

Salisbury Post

CHINA GROVE - Young drivers better turn down the booming music coming from

their cars if they want to avoid a hefty fine.

China Grove Town Council voted Tuesday night to remove a provision for

warning citations and give police the authority to issue a $100 citation to

motorists for a first violation of the town's noise ordinance. The penalty

for second and subsequent offenses will be $300 each.

Police Chief Hodge Coffield detailed the problems for his department with

the previous law, which required that a warning citation be given for a

first offense.

His department had no way of tracking previous warning citations through a

database from a central dispatch center.

Unless there was someone back at the police department, an officer could not

check for a previous warning while holding a suspect at the traffic stop,

Coffield noted. The previous law required officers to issue a warning for a

person's first noise offense, a $100 fine on a second offense and $300 fines

for offenses after that.

Now officers will be able to issue a $100 fine for a first-time noise

ordinance violation.

Coffield said officers still would have the discretion to issue a verbal

warning without a fine, if they felt that was more appropriate for the

situation.

Councilman Blair Lyseski said he thought the law should still have a warning

provision for the first offense.

With the opening of the new Carson High School later this year and China

Grove's close location to South Rowan High School, the town is "a high

school town" with many young drivers, Lyseski said.

He said a $100 fine for a first offense for loud music seemed a little

unfair to teenagers. Lyseski also reminded his council colleagues that they

were young once, too. Council voted 4-to-1 to make the changes in the

ordinance, with Lyseski voting against the motion.

Council voted unanimously for Coffield's proposed ordinance to allow police

officers to stop suspects and ask for their identifications.

The new law says an officer may stop any person he reasonably suspects is

committing, has committed or is about to commit a crime and require that

person to furnish his full name, address and an identification if available.

North Carolina law requires the driver of a vehicle to furnish his or her

operator's license at the request of a law enforcement officer. But state

law does not require identification from suspects who are not operating or

in charge of a motor vehicle.

Coffield cited court cases that support a police officer's stopping a person

under reasonable suspicion and asking for that person's identification.