Police can now pull over loud cars
Under a Virginia law that takes effect July 1, police officers can stop a vehicle for having an excessively noisy exhaust system.
Officers can enforce this law as a primary offense, meaning there is reasonable suspicion to make a traffic stop.
Up to now, state law considered loud exhaust systems a secondary offense. Officers were prohibited from stopping a vehicle solely for this violation.
“Loud cars have created a quality-of-life issue for many community members and have been identified as a public nuisance,” the Fairfax County Police Department states on its news blog.
The new law requires owners and drivers to operate their vehicles with an exhaust system in good working order to prevent excessive or unusual levels of noise. Exhaust systems must be of a type installed as standard factory equipment or a comparable design.
Licensed antique cars are exempted.
According to the FCPD, officers will rely on their training and experience to determine if a vehicle’s exhaust system fails to prevent excessive noise when compared to a standard factory design on such vehicle.
The Fairfax County code has been amended to allow the enforcement of this requirement.
Board of Supervisors Chair Jeffrey McKay said Fairfax County will urge the General Assembly to include mufflers as part of the annual vehicle inspection process.
They CAN pull over cars with loud mufflers, but they probably won’t. Enforcement has gone way down, as Vincent C. acknowledged and as police themselves have acknowledged. Would you, as a cop, want to risk your life pulling over a speeding souped-up car with 4 emboldened passengers because it has a loud muffler? Me neither.
People complain that the law didn’t allow police to pull cars over. Law changes, people complain that even with authority police won’t pull cars over. How is a civil society supposed to handle concerns if there are no possible solutions under any circumstances?
Occam’s Razor.
-Don’t excuse an individual’s poor behavior on nebulous externalities.
-Don’t defund the police.
-Don’t denigrate police to the point where they hesitate to enforce the law.
-Don’t hire police chiefs who have contempt for their own officers.
-Don’t elect Commonwealth attorneys who won’t prosecute.
-Don’t hire vehement anti-police politicians at any level of government.
Unless/until then, we become less civil by the day, which is what you are seeing.
I encourage you to talk to a cop to get their perspective. Stay safe out there 🙂
Mason District FCP has a Citizen’s Advisory Committee. Attend the meetings. Voice your opinion if you think enforcement is lax.
Halleluia! I can understand an officer not wanting to pull over a car full of people, but there are plenty of lone drivers in these nuisance cars all the time. Stop a few of them and give them significant fines. See if that makes a difference.
Also, police shouldn’t have to rely on their “training and experience” to determine/justify pulling someone over. There are decibel meters that can and should be used not only for cars, but many other kinds of noise as well.
I have an antique Camaro – with headers and a catback. Headers have a unique tinny rumble that doesn’t exist on factory exhaust. So it is loud. But loud is a relative term. I can easily hear these other loud cars over my own – when I am driving it. Some of these cars are so loud they hurt my ears from over 100 feet away.
Some of these commenters should say what they mean. Minorities shouldn’t have loud cars, but it’s ok for white men to have loud classic cars.
For the love of God. YOUR ARE RACIST!! Just stop. Some people just want laws followed and not hearing loud ass cars buzzing by their houses at 12am.
I wonder if those engine revvers at The Block will finally stop, easy enforcement can be found there.
Good. Now let’s see if they enforce the law, and let’s see if it makes a difference. I’m so tired of not being able to hear my car radio over the stupid car next to me.
Finally! And no, we don’t need a reason to stop these people. They are uncivilized in their behavior. And I say this as an African American….profile them please!
This problem is worldwide. A souped-up (i.e., obnoxious) motorcycle zooming down one secondary street in Paris (France) can wake up to 10,000 people. It’s about time we restored some common-sense to our law enforcement! The people have a right to enjoy peace and quiet in our neighborhoods.
I was just driving in Arlington and guess what? Arlington Department of transportation has portable electronic signs with “NO LOUD MUFFLERS”. How are vehicle owners to learn of the change in the law? Where are the signs VDOT? VDOT has overhead electronic signs on most major roads. The only message I’ve seen is “County line 7 miles”. Hey Penny Gross you have a direct line to VDOT. How about demanding electronic signs on Columbia Pike ?
Thank god! I live in bailey’s Crossroads and these fools driving up and down route 7 and cops just sit there.
It agree, this magnificent idea is necessary just by the way
We also need all cars to be measured for noise at inspections, and consider fining car shops who install exhaust systems that create noise over the limit.