PUBLICATION: Palm Beach Post
DATE: April 6, 2000
SECTION: A Section, Pg. 1A
BYLINE: Teresa Lane
DATELINE: Port St. Lucie, Florida

The Palm Beach Post reports that police in Port St. Lucie, Florida recently engaged in "Operation Silent Night," an undercover plan to ticket drivers who play their car radios and stereos too loud. They gave out traffic tickets to eighteen drivers at $50 per ticket. They also issued one misdemeanor noise violation with a fine of $100 and a notice for the driver to appear in court.

According to the article, the police were enforcing a state law that says that car radios must not be loud enough to be audible 100 feet away from the vehicle. There is also a city law that says that car stereos must not be loud enough to be audible 50 feet away.

The article notes that the person who received the stricter citation was outside of his car pumping gasoline at the time of the ticket. Some of the ticketed drivers do not believe that their radios were actually audible 100 feet away, and they plan to contest the fines.

The article states that the police department decided to institute Operation Silent Night because so many residents had lodged noise complaints about loud car stereos. Police spokesman Chuck Johnson said, "The people have told us they want this kind of enforcement so we're going to tackle it until the problem subsides."

In the article, Johnson also added that loud music is a safety issue as well. Drivers in cars with loud music are not always able to hear the sirens from emergency vehicles.