Saskatoon police revving up tickets for noisy vehicles

The Saskatoon Police have been ticketing drivers for noisy vehicles at a record pace this year.

With more than three months left in 2019 police have given out more than 140 tickets for loud mufflers, which is closing in on last year's total of just under 160 charges.

The information is in a report to the Saskatoon Board of Police Commissioners on traffic noise that will be tabled at a meeting on Friday.

The report police issued about 80 tickets for loud mufflers in 2017. In 2018 that number almost doubled.

It also said traffic noise complaints are most prevalent on Eighth Street and Spadina Crescent, with 41 per cent of all noise violations in the city this year occurring on Eighth Street.

The report said police have launched a social media campaign and have set up voluntary testing clinics for motorcycles along with more noise checkpoints.

Traffic unit members have also received extra training.

Police found even when given a ticket, a number of drivers were not removing the offending mufflers and received more tickets.

The force has consulted with SGI, which sends out compliance letters to offenders that give them 30 days to fix the issue or face cancellation of their registration.

"And if they don't respond after two weeks we send them another letter advising that they have 14 days. If no action is taken then the vehicle's registration is terminated," said SGI's manager of media relations, Tyler McMurchy.

It would be a costly mistake to keep on driving with a cancelled registration, he said.

"If you're caught doing that that's a $580 ticket," said McMurchy. "And it also means there's no insurance in the event of you causing a collision."

McMurchy said there are 160 automated licence readers with law enforcement throughout the province so it is tough to get away with an unregistered vehicle these days.

He also said there is already legislation in place at the provincial and municipal levels that address noisy vehicles.

What is different this year is the number of inspection tickets Saskatoon police have issued.

"[Inspection tickets] are not just related to noise," McMurchy said. "It can be related to windshields or lighting or tinting, things of that nature, or tires. But it appears that police have significantly increased the number of vehicle inspection tickets that they are issuing."

McMurchy said from Jan. 1 to Sept. 18 of this year, Saskatoon police had given out 566 tickets.

During the same period last year there were 262 inspection tickets issued. 

"So there has been an uptick in enforcement."

Ideas being put forward in the report to limit the noise issues include putting up quiet zone signage in neighbourhoods, removing legal u-turns on Eighth Street, lobbying for higher fines and installing noise monitoring stations.

The report said the City of Edmonton did put in four automated noise monitoring stations but the idea backfired as a large number of motorists made more noise to see how high of a reading on the monitor they could attain.

In May, Edmonton police began staffing those noise monitoring units.