MOBILE, Ala. (WPMI) After being slapped with his sixth violation, Julian Brown is sounding off on the city’s noise ordinance.
“Every time I crank this vehicle and leave my house, [the same police officer] always comes out after me and writes me a noise ordinance ticket,” Brown told Local 15. “He says your motor is too loud, everything is too loud, your music is too loud.”
Brown lives on Farnell Drive and said it’s always the same police officer that slaps him with a ticket: his neighbor who lives across the street.
“He’s always off-duty and in regular clothes,” Brown said. “It’s not even his precinct. Whenever I leave or come home, he comes out, gets in his patrol car and gives me a ticket.”
According to municipal law, it’s unlawful for your car stereo to be “plainly audible” 25 feet away. Brown said that guideline is “ridiculous”.
"You can hear a car motor over 25 feet,” Brown said. “You can hear me talking to you right now over 25 feet.”
Brown said three of his noise ordinance cases have been dismissed, one case the police officer did not show up to court, and the fifth ticket he paid.
“It was like $390 or something like that,” Brown said.
Brown said the only person that seems to mind the noise is his police officer neighbor.
”Ask anyone in my neighborhood, nobody has a complaint against me,” Brown said.
Local 15 spoke to the Mobile Police Department. They said the rules are the rules, and an off-duty police officer in another Mobile precinct can issue you a ticket if you violate the noise ordinance.
Brown said he will fight this latest citation, and plans on filing a formal complaint against the officer.
“To me it’s just plain harassment, the same police officer six times,” Brown said.
