Question: Could staff provide feedback on the cost of launching a noise “camera” pilot pursuant to the new legislative authority. What are the costs of the items, their installation and their enforcement? (Vice Mayor Bagley)
Response:
House Joint Resolution 436 requested that the Department of State Police study the feasibility and impact of implementing vehicle noise monitoring devices in the community. The findings from this study will be presented to the Governor and the General Assembly by November 30, 2025. Until the case study is finished, no locality has the authority to implement the program.
As this program would be new to the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Alexandria Police Department (APD) would have to look at other cities who have this program to determine what the outline of the program would look like. As of March 2024, there were only four known cities that currently use cameras to automatically generate a ticket for exceeding a certain decibel level: New York City, Knoxville, TN, Miami, FL and Sacramento, CA. At this time, New York was the only city currently issuing tickets, where violations detected by the cameras resulted in fines of $800 to $2,500. Knoxville and Miami have been piloting programs since 2022.
The NYC Department of Environmental Protection's annual report revealed that from FY 2022 to FY 2024, personnel costs totaled $805,655 for eight full-time positions. Non-personnel costs were $326,805, covering camera rentals, data hosting, software, and maintenance. For FY 2025, costs for two new cameras are projected at $69,100, with an additional $39,992 for existing camera services, totaling $109,092. The report also highlighted a collection issue, as only $340,000 was paid of the $1,036,000 in fines imposed during that period.
If the City were to implement a noise camera program, the Police Department recommends the program run in the same manner as the red light and speed camera programs – Transportation and Environmental Services leads the research and assessment arm of the operations, and the Police Department receives the violations and works with the vendor to notify the offenders.