Bellevue police have a new tool to combat one of the department's most common complaints: loud vehicles.Officers are rolling out decibel readers designed to sho
Bellevue police have a new tool to combat one of the department's most common complaints: loud vehicles.
Officers are rolling out decibel readers designed to show drivers exactly how loud their car is and issue citations when it crosses the line.
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According to Bellevue Police Maj. Rob Spingler, noise and traffic complaints are consistently the top issue residents report to the department.
"It's the number one complaint we get, so whether it's speeding or racing, loud mufflers, reckless driving, the car meets, those types of things, which is why we're really trying to bring this tool to the officers," Spingler said.
The problem has been growing. Citations for loud exhaust and mufflers have roughly doubled over the past year, Spingler said.
"From last summer to this summer we've had about a hundred percent increase in citations that we've issued for specifically for loud exhaust, loud mufflers," he told KOMO News.
Bellevue PD's traffic unit has spent the last two weeks training officers on how to use the new devices during traffic stops. According to Spingler, an officer explains the test to the driver, sets up the reader near the exhaust, then has the driver rev their engine to a specific RPM. The device measures the noise coming from the tailpipe.
Police are targeting vehicles that exceed 95 decibels, which is roughly the volume of a loud lawn mower or power tool.
Some say the crackdown is overdue.
"We can hear it from our apartment, especially if it's at night, it's disruptive," said driver Beth Kryger. "I think it's a great idea, I wonder why more of that hasn't been done so far."
"The loud exhaust part? I'm cool with that, but if you're talking about music, I'm not cool with that because I play my music kind of loud," said driver Patrick Session.
Police say drivers like Session don't need to worry as the decibel readers will be used to measure exhaust noise, not music.
The devices are already in use in some of Bellevue's busier corridors, where officers say they most often encounter racing and loud-exhaust complaints.
