{"id":237303,"date":"2026-07-07T06:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T06:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/237303\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T06:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T06:53:09","slug":"noise-complaints-in-reading-see-stronger-response-from-police-reading-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/237303\/","title":{"rendered":"Noise complaints in Reading see stronger response from police | Reading Area"},"content":{"rendered":"

READING, Pa. \u2013\u00a0During its Committee of the Whole meeting Monday night, Reading City Council received a police update on noise citations issued since council adopted an amendment to the noise ordinance last October.<\/p>\n

On Oct. 13, 2025, council approved an amendment to the city\u2019s noise ordinance to increase the minimum fee to $100 from the previous $25 penalty.<\/p>\n

The amendment also eliminated the need for two residential complaints for the police to respond, and it gave police the authority to immediately seize any device that is the source of the noise.<\/p>\n

Scott Errington, captain of the Reading Police Department\u2019s patrol division, gave statistics from Oct. 13, 2025, through July 2, 2026.<\/p>\n

Errington noted that the report did not include the Fourth of July holiday weekend, as those numbers were not yet available.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion, the most important change this amendment offered was eliminating the need for two different complainants from two different residences,\u201d Errington said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you know, sometimes it’s difficult enough to get one person who is willing to go into court to testify, and it’s very difficult to get two people from two different residences,\u201d he said. \u201cI think you’ll see that the numbers show that this amendment gave officers more practical tools to take action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Errington said that from March 13 through July 2, the number of noise citations rose by 62.8% over the same period from the previous year.<\/p>\n

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Violators of Reading’s noise ordinance will have to pay a higher penalty fee, and police could immediately seize their noise-making devices.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe nearly doubled disruptive conduct reports, and that\u2019s in large part to the amendment,\u201d Errington said. \u201cChief (Javier) Ruiz has prioritized the quality-of-life calls because we understand it’s a significant impact on residents and neighborhoods, and it significantly affects the quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe directed patrols at the Pagoda on every single shift, with officers conducting daily checks before and after the gates are closed,\u201d Errington said. \u201cAt this point last year, there were 33 noise complaints at the Pagoda, compared to eight this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Errington also said that five of the most egregious after-hours locations were able to be shut down by the police.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, those efforts affected noise complaints, but they also have other similar quality-of-life issues such as parking, hit-and-runs, not to mention DUI\u2019s that result from drinking so early in the morning,\u201d Errington reported.<\/p>\n

Errington said Chief Ruiz has authorized targeted details where officers will be assigned specifically to Riverfront Park to enforce parking, noise, open container and other violations.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Jaime Baez Jr. said he saw the increase in citations a good thing because it shows the noise issues are being tackled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to thank you, as I think that it does definitely have a trickle effect, especially with shutting down these (after-hours) locations,\u201d Baez said. \u201cIt’s a good thing for the citizens of the city who are lawfully abiding citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. \u2013\u00a0During its Committee of the Whole meeting Monday night, Reading City Council received a police update…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1091,2049,102212,4155,128,1095,130,129,102210,102211],"class_list":["post-237303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-jaime-baez","tag-javier-ruiz","tag-noise-complaints","tag-noise-ordinance","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-council","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-readings-patrol-division","tag-scott-errington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}