Noisy tenants beware: Four months after the Lawrence Police Department adopted new guidelines for addressing noise complaints, the number of noise citations issued by the department has increased dramatically.

Addressing a meeting of the Oread Neighborhood Assn. Thursday, Lawrence Police Chief Ron Olin said the department had issued 49 citations for noise violations since January. Only 18 citations were issued in all of 2004, he said.

“We’re able to put a spotlight on noise complaints now,” Olin said.

In January, the police department adopted new rules for noise violations that allowed an investigating officer to serve as the witness on a complaint. Previously, the complaining party, usually a neighbor, had to serve as the witness, a process that required lengthy paper work and the cooperation of the person who called in the complaint. Olin estimated that it used to take an officer an hour to fill out the offense form required for a noise citation.

Now, police officers have been given the authority to assess a noise situation without input from a complainant and issue a citation if they think a party or music is too loud.

The new policy, combined with new computer technology that allows officers in the field to pinpoint addresses with multiple noise complaints, has led to the department issuing significantly more tickets, but, the new system is not without its drawbacks, said assistant city manager David Corliss, who also spoke at the meeting. Allowing the officers to serve as witnesses means the officers may be required to make more court appearances.

“Our preference is to have a complaining witness,” Corliss said. “But police officers are witnesses in the vast majority of fodder in public court — every speeding ticket, the police officer is the witness.”

While the new policies have helped officers cut through the red tape that prevented more citations from being issued in the past, they won’t help address a noise problem that has plagued some Oread residents for years.

On the Street: Should night-time and early-morning hours be considered a violation of the city noise ordinance? (04-09-05) Not-so-sweet sounds of growth may get muffled (04-09-05) Police cracking down on noisy parties (01-20-05) 6News video: Police hope change quiets complaints (01-09-05) Noise complaint policy (.pdf) LawrencePolice.org: Noise Problems

Charlie Goff, a neighborhood association member, asked whether the new policies could help curb noise associated with bar crowds leaving downtown drinking establishments.

Olin said it was hard to issue citations in those situations because the crowd is a moving target, and several more serious complaints come in at that time as well.

“A noise ordinance complaint is not at the top of our list of priorities,” Olin said.