“Members of the public can look out for the Guyana Police Force’s proactive arrangement in terms of dealing with noise pollution, which is expected to bring some degree of relief,” said acting Police Commissioner Clifton Hicken in July last year in reference to a ceremony where the Environmental Protection Agency had officially handed over noise meters to the GPF. According to the accompanying press release police officers from across the country were being trained by the EPA in the use of the meters. “[W]e are going to ensure that we focus on noise pollution in a constructive way…” the Commissioner was quoted as saying.
Anyone who had initially envisaged that from then on police officers would be sallying forth en masse from their stations, noise meters in hand, to confront those rupturing the peace of our environment would by now have recognised it was all a daydream. After many decades of ministers’ promises, commissioners’ assurances, countless reports to police stations, endless complaints to the EPA and other authorities, innumerable letters to the editor, endless stories in the newspaper and a plethora of editorials, nothing, but nothing has changed; the noise pollution problem continues unabated.
What the police seem not to have recognised is that the impunity with which the noise polluters have been allowed to operate has led on to greater crimes – threats of violence against those who make reports, if not the commission of actual assaults. A horrific case of this occurred some years ago when a woman in Kitty was doused with acid because of her complaints about a neighbouring beer garden. When he was Minister of Public Security, Mr Ramjattan alluded to the fact that it was difficult to bring noise nuisance cases to the courts, because witnesses would not testify. If that is the case, then it can be safely concluded they would not testify because they were afraid, a serious constraint on the pursuit of offenders.
The threatening habits on the part of some have not diminished. Only a few days ago we reported the case of a Campbellville resident who made a complaint about someone nearby who was blasting the area with noise in daylight hours. She complained to the Kitty police, who on this occasion did accompany her to the man’s home and cautioned him. He complied, but later went to her house with a cutlass and threatened her if she made any further reports against him. Another resident was also threatened with a cutlass over the same complaint, while in her case explosives were also later thrown into her yard. Several calls to the police about this, however, produced no result.
The most recent report we have carried on the problem from which the above examples derive, was on April 10, when we related how a caravan called Lisa’s Restaurant and Bar at the corner of Fourth Street, Campbellville was blaring out music throughout the whole night and long past dawn the following day. Between 2020-2023 various departments were contacted either by phone, or by letter or personal visits. The EPA alone was sent 16 letters between 2020 and 2021, while a letter of acknowledgement from the agency stated the following: “[O]fficers of the EPA conducted investigations on May 31st and August 14th, which concluded that the nature and time of activity at the aforementioned location may pose a risk of noise disturbance to residents in the immediate environment. Given the collaborative efforts and joint mandates of the Guyana Police Force and the EPA for the noise management, Sergeant Daly of the Kitty Police Station has highlighted that her office will monitor the operation for any future complaints of noise disturbance and to institute enforcement action as may be applicable under the Police Act cap. 1601, Laws of Guyana, the Criminal Law (Offences) Act, CAP, 8:02, Laws of Guyana and/or any other relevant legislation.”
That was in 2021, and we are now well into 2023, so what happened to Sergeant Daly’s monitoring activities and enforcement action under the Police Act and Criminal Law (Offences) Act? But never mind Sergeant Daly, who may no longer even be stationed at Kitty. What about Georgetown Police Commander Simon McBean who told this newspaper last week that the GPF would usually engage with the EPA and respond quickly to noise nuisance reports. Such reports, he said, were attended to as soon as possible. One can only ask when he last visited Campbellville in the night hours, or in the case of the Caravan, before 10am in the morning.
If the Caravan were not bad enough, there is also a bar named Platinum, we were told, in addition to various cars which would add to the clamour. The only difference between them and Lisa’s Caravan is that they would eventually close down, whereas the caravan would go on until well into the next morning. But the Campbellville residents are not the only ones to have complained to the newspaper this year. There is also the matter of Kitty residents, one of whom wrote to us in February about the “obnoxious” noise nuisance at the Kitty Roundabout affecting all those who live in the neighbourhood of the Kitty Public Road to Shell Road and Stanley Place. In this area no one can sleep from 5pm to 2am, especially on Sunday.
In this instance it was said that numerous calls had been made not just to the Kitty Police Station, but also those at Brickdam and Alberttown, and the letter-writer then listed the typical responses residents received when the officer answered the phone: “Is me alone here, I can’t leave the police station”; “We don’t have vehicles to send”; “We will be there shortly”; “The patrol on another issue, you have to wait,” and so on. If a patrol did come to the scene the volume would be lowered, but after they left the volume would be turned up again. “Can someone in the relevant authority advise us the residents where and what to do next?” the writer asked.
Those who govern in this nation of ours are not exposed to the noise pollution ordinary citizens have to endure. One could only wish that the Caravan and a whole cohort of noisy cars parked themselves outside State House on Carmichael Street one night. They wouldn’t be there for long. The police would act with an alacrity unseen on the streets of Campbellville or Kitty. There is no point in reiterating yet again the dangers inherent in continuous loud noise, never mind the disruption it causes to normal existence; the political powers-that-be know about that already because they have heard it all before. The problem is it doesn’t affect them personally, in addition to which it is not a political issue. The perpetrators come from all ethnic groups, as do those who are affected by it. The case of some wedding parties aside, not dealing with it will not lose anybody too many votes, and no one has dealt with it in more than thirty years.
Nevertheless, the government has aspirations to make this a tourist society, although they don’t appear to be doing the kind of things which are necessary to translate that into a reality. And one of those things is stamping out the noise pollution problem. It might mean amending the law in the first instance, both in terms of the sanctions imposed on polluters, but also potentially in other ways. What is the current state of the law, for example, in relation to the use of noise meter readings as evidence in court? Could they obviate the need for witnesses? Where these kinds of matters are concerned the AG should be consulted.
If we are going the route of noise meters, and these become the foundation of cases in the courts, then the police need to have a sufficient number of them to be able to act in all instances. Initially they will be very busy, but a consistent approach will soon see a noticeable drop in the number of offenders. At the function last July only 25 noise meters were issued to the police. That is a meaningless quantity which will have absolutely no impact on the problem. It is just window dressing. It is about time that Minister Robeson Benn paid some attention to the issue and gave everyone who is assailed by intolerable noise levels some relief. As a start, perhaps, he could read the riot act to the GPF about responding to complaints.
