Dear Editor,
After a recent investment of Seven million Guyanese taxpayers’ dollars to purchase Law Enforcement Sound Level Meters, the Police must now aggressively monitor both police-owned and civilian owned “boom buses”, and other perpetrators of noise nuisance offences, so that every Guyanese can enjoy our constitutional right to personal liberty, public safety and good health.
The Government recently armed the Police with sound meters capable of recording and storing up to 8000 noise level readings. These are date-stamped and are admissible evidence in a court of law in pursuit of convictions of noise offenders. The potential for abuse of this new weapon by the police exists, and strict Police Departmental accountability regulations must be enforced to ensure that the people’s right to use legal levels of sound is not encroached. But perhaps an even greater challenge will be for the Police to enforce the law among its own ranks who are the owners and/or operators of Mini-buses. A noise nuisance hotline must be set up with immediate effect to cater for the expected hike in noise offences during the Christmas Season.
The suffering of the elderly, the sick, the student burning the midnight oil and the hardworking citizen seeking much-needed rest must come to an end now! Entertainment providers and operators of sound systems must enjoy their right to satisfactorily serve their clients, especially when in pursuit of their honest livelihood. However, the right of any citizen stops where that of another starts. The duty of the Government is to protect both.
We call on all law-abiding citizens, the Police and those entrusted with leadership of this great country to ensure the longevity of public order, public safety, public morality and public health as some of the constitutionally enshrined rights of every Guyanese citizen. Excessively loud noises are not just unhealthy, and uncomfortable, they are illegal.
Yours faithfully,
Phyllis J. Jordan
