Reading police officials are urging City Council to make two adjustments to the city\u2019s noise ordinance to improve enforcement and better respond to residents\u2019 complaints.<\/p>\n
Second Deputy Chief Luz Shade told council during a recent meeting that the current law requires two complainants from separate households before officers can issue a citation.<\/p>\n
The department, she said, recommends the ordinance be amended to allow citations based on a single complainant.<\/p>\n
In either case, complaints cannot be made anonymously, Shade noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to have a victim on that citation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The second recommendation involves raising the minimum fine.<\/p>\n
Currently, the penalty ranges from $25 to $1,000.<\/p>\n
The police department suggests increasing the minimum fine to $300, Shade said, with council deciding whether a different amount might be more appropriate.<\/p>\n
Shade said officers want to send a clear message: \u201cYou break the ordinance, you\u2019re going to be cited, and it\u2019s going to hurt your pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shade said the department is moving toward a zero-tolerance approach. Officers have sometimes tried to handle complaints informally in the past but going forward they will issue citations when violations are identified rather than offering repeated warnings.<\/p>\n
Council support<\/p>\n
Council members expressed support for the proposed ordinance changes, noting noise complaints are among the most common issues they hear about from residents.<\/p>\n
Several council members, including District 5 representative Rafael Nunez, emphasized that loud music and disturbances in neighborhoods have become a growing concern. Nunez said he favors a $500 minimum fine and suggested exploring additional penalties for vehicles with large sound systems.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have people in my area, they\u2019re sick, and they do not tolerate this noise anymore,\u201d Nunez said, noting residents often look to him to intervene directly.<\/p>\n
Nunez described a situation where noise was so disruptive that an ambulance was called to assist an affected neighbor.<\/p>\n
Some council members asked if police are able to seize speakers or other equipment when its use is causing a neighborhood disturbance.<\/p>\n
Shade said the ordinance gives the police authority to confiscate sound equipment in certain public settings, such as parks, but residential cases are different.<\/p>\n
Confiscating equipment from private homes would get \u201ca little muddy\u201d from a legal standpoint, she explained.<\/p>\n
Council members also discussed whether confiscating speakers mounted on vehicles or in outdoor public spaces could serve as an effective deterrent.<\/p>\n
Department staffing<\/p>\n
They also raised questions about how fines are enforced, how many citations have been issued in recent years and whether officers have the staffing needed to respond effectively.<\/p>\n
Shade said calls are prioritized with response more serious infractions taking precedence.<\/p>\n
She also acknowledged the city\u2019s limited roster of officers can make the response to noise complaints inconsistent.<\/p>\n
Due to prioritizing more serious crimes, Shade said, officers sometimes arrive at the scene of a noise complaint after the loud music or other noise has stopped.<\/p>\n
Ideally for officer safety, two officers would be dispatched for noise complaints, she said, but that is not always possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we have a noise call, we attempt to at least send one officer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The dispatched officer will attempt to defuse the situation, she said. And if there have been two or more complaints, a citation can be issued.<\/p>\n
Councilman O. Christopher Miller noted the challenge of handling large gatherings with only one responding officer, calling it unrealistic to expect consistent enforcement under current staffing levels.<\/p>\n
Council President Donna Reed said the city must also balance enforcement with education and neighborhood outreach.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, that\u2019s the whole thing,\u201d she said, noting strengthening neighborhood ties is just as important as punitive measures.<\/p>\n
Council members expressed their gratitude to and support of the department\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
Reed said council it will review the police department\u2019s recommendations and work with the administration on possible amendments to the ordinance.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: September 8, 2025 at 10:30 AM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reading police officials are urging City Council to make two adjustments to the city\u2019s noise ordinance to improve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,857,182,139,28,736,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-7984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-essential-reading","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7984","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=7984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}