Govt threatens to revoke bar licences for loud music

…as Police decries sloth in prosecution of noise nuisance cases

Amid complaints of the Police not doing enough to curb noise nuisance in communities, the country’s premier law enforcement agency has lamented the slothfulness of prosecution when such cases are before the courts.

This concern was raised by Senior Superintendent Errol Watts, who is Second-in Command of Operations in the Guyana Police Force. He was at the time addressing participants at a one-day ‘Noise Management’ training session for Police Officers held on Thursday at the Police Training Centre. Some 50 ranks participated in the training session for which they received certificates.
According to Watts, who is also the Force’s representative on the Public Security Ministry’s Task Force on Nosie Nuisance, dealing with this issue is not an easy task but added that with the training received during the workshop, the Force will be able to correct some of its shortcomings and be better equipped to tackle this societal scourge.
He went on to outline, however, that while the Police have been doing its part in curbing noise nuisance, its efforts are being frustrated by the judicial system.
“For the year 2017, I can tell you, there were 417 reports of noise nuisance cases countrywide. So far for this year, we’ve had in excess of 300 reports and we’ve laid charges in most of those cases. But one of the concerns we have in the Force, which we have no control over, is that when these charges are instituted, they’re taking a long time in the court system. So we are trying to encourage the victims to bear with the Police Force; we have no control over this, but those are the issues that would frustrate the members of the public, especially the victims in relation to noise nuisance,” Watts posited.
They urged the participants, as well as stakeholder agencies, to work assiduously so as to ensure that they address such issues as a collective.
Thursday’s noise management training was a collaboration between the Task Force on Nosie Nuisance and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The aim of the training is to build the technical capacity of Police Officers to respond to noise pollution reports from the public and to aid in the court prosecution process of offenders.
During the one-day session, participants were trained in the areas of EPA laws, nature of evidence and footage for noise nuisance, including the use of decibel noise meter.
Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan in his address to the participants at the opening ceremony, emphasised the need for collaboration among the stakeholder authorities within the task force in tackling noise nuisance.
On this note, the Minister posited these agencies should look at implementing more effective measures of curbing this societal scourge such as seizing equipment, revoking business licences, and increasing fines.
“We want to take the profit out of this illegal activity and that means we must start, after going through the procedures, ensuring that we can revoke some of the licences of these bars that play loud music or the (carts) selling their video and their tape recordings… or the cars of people,” Ramjattan stated.
He went on to say too that, “Many complaints of noise nuisance come from people complaining about small shops and bars not licensed to operate, they play some of the loudest music… and though there might be reports at Police stations, we find that some of them still continue [to play]. So it’s a valuable partnership when you give the information to [the sister agency like the Guyana Revenue Authority] and the GRA could then use it together with Police Force and… those licences could be revoked.”
Meanwhile, acting Executive Director of the EPA, Aminah McPherson-Damon, in brief remarks pointed out that despite a sound framework with penalties for offenders, much more needs to be done to ensure the Guyanese citizenry is environmentally conscious.
Hence, she contended the need for such training to equip ranks with the necessary capacity to enforce these regulations. This, according to McPherson-Damon, will lend to efforts ongoing by EPA to curb noise nuisance, which includes outreaches at Station Street, Kitty and at the Soesdyke/Linden Highway Junction.
“The ultimate goal of the efforts to date and our future efforts is to ensure that mechanisms are in place to guarantee the reduction of noise emissions and to protect our citizens from excessive noise. It is hoped that [Thursday’s] workshop would be another step to achieving these high ideals…,” the EPA Head stated.
In addition to the workshop, the participants also took part in a practical session which saw them carrying out a field exercise at Station Street, Kitty, using the decibel meter to measure noise level from the various night spots there.