{"id":275689,"date":"2026-05-02T06:36:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T06:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/275689\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T06:36:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T06:36:21","slug":"can-you-call-the-cops-if-someone-is-playing-music-too-loud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/275689\/","title":{"rendered":"Can you call the cops if someone is playing music too loud?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The summer season is a popular time in Texas for backyard barbecues<\/a>, parties, and\u00a0other gatherings. Music can often set the scene, but neighbors aren’t always a fan of it. It’s not crazy to wonder, can they call the cops?<\/p>\n

It may seem harmless, but there can be consequences to blasting your speaker. State law generally mentions the topic, and city ordinances get even more specific.<\/p>\n

There are certain requirements the act has to meet for it to be considered illegal. The rules\u00a0can vary depending on which city you are in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Texas Penal Code (Section 42.01)<\/a> considers it an offense of disorderly conduct to make an “unreasonable” amount of noise in or near a private residence that someone has no right to occupy or in a public place, with a few exceptions.<\/p>\n

“A noise is presumed to be unreasonable if the noise exceeds a decibel level of 85 after the person making the noise receives notice from a magistrate or peace officer that the noise is a public nuisance,” a part\u00a0of\u00a0the law states.<\/p>\n

It does not apply to a student under the age of 12 if they were at a school during its normal operating hours. It is also not an offense for any person who is at a public shooting range. “In or near” is considered anywhere that the impact is heard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yes. You can call the number for your area’s non-emergency police line. Those in San Antonio<\/a> and Austin<\/a> can also contact 311, which is used to report non-emergency incidents.<\/p>\n

In Austin, it is available 24\/7 and connects a person with a knowledgeable City of Austin ambassador. The San Antonio center is hosted by customer service representatives and\u00a0operates Monday through Sunday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (11 p.m. for urgent concerns), except on holidays.<\/p>\n

It can be reported when it goes against city noise ordinances. San Antonio and Austin<\/a> codes both mention decibel limits. Someone\u00a0unsure if it qualifies can\u00a0still call, but officials may not give a citation to a person playing music that doesn’t go above the set levels.<\/p>\n

Or\u00a0it surpasses the noise levels measured\u00a0from a neighbor’s property line and is present at nighttime (between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. on\u00a0Friday and Saturday). The River Walk area gets an exception.<\/p>\n

During the nighttime hours, places have to lower the sound by a certain number of decibels. Other factors, like how long it plays and whether it contains pure tone components or is impulsive, could also force owners to turn it down.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The summer season is a popular time in Texas for backyard barbecues, parties, and\u00a0other gatherings. Music can often…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[847,820,82,84,83],"class_list":["post-275689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-mysanews","tag-mysastaff","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}