Troy Auger was driving his vehicle in the late hours nearing midnight with his vehicle’s music playing when an officer sitting in his patrol vehicle in nearby parking lot heard the music and cited him for City of Providence ordinance violation. Defendant Auger appealed the $200 Municipal Court fine to the State Superior Court and on Motion To Dismiss raised several grounds including that the ordinance was unconstitutionally vague and too broad and that state law preempted the ordinance. The Superior Court upheld the constitutionality of the ordinance and specifically found that the ordinance as written was quite specific when it not only included the decibels violative of the ordinance but a specific distance that would be considered violative of the ordinance. In this case, the ordinance challenged was Article III, § 16-93. This Ordinance prohibits noise in excess of 50 dBA during certain times. This oridinance also provided that an alternative measure of determing if the noise was too loud: “…the same is audible to a person of reasonably sensitive hearing at a distance of two hundred (200) feet from its source, shall be prima facie evidence of a violation of this section.” Defendant appealed to the Rhode Island Supreme Court. Appeal was affirmed. In the City of Providence if your stereo system can be heard 200 feet away from its location anytime of day or night, it is too loud and you can be cited. See full opinion at: State ex rel. City of Providence v. Troy Augers