Help with suburban loud music issue (home, live, ordinance)

[mollyblythe]

I have lived for years in a generally quiet suburban area outside a moderately large city in central Calif. Within the last year or so, there has been a growing problem with neighbors nearby having very loud special occasion parties. Sometimes they have a live band and sometimes just amplified music. Almost always there is a loud thumping bass that I think would drive the average person to distraction. The parties can run from 4p.m. past midnight. With most neighbors, this is a one time or once every great while occurrence. It happened almost every weekend during the summer and fall and sometimes during the week. Again this week has been a problem. There is also the occasional neighbor who just likes to play their music loud and does so when they feel like it. I have one near me now who does this.

Our county noise ordinance is pretty standard. My issue is how it is applied.
If you have a neighbor playing loud music, you call the sheriff's dispatch.
They will send a deputy to ask the noisy party to turn the music down. Since it's a low priority call, it may take the deputy awhile to respond. If the partiers don't turn the music down much or wait till the deputy leaves and then turn the music back up, the dispatcher will only send a deputy back out if the complainant agrees to sign a formal complaint and go to court to testify against the offending neighbor.

The stated rationale is that the revelers aren't disturbing the deputy's peace but the complainant's. On one level I understand this. However, if you're the one whose peace is disturbed, it takes some courage to agree to sign a complaint against people I generally don't know at all. It's taking a chance to incite the ire of people who already have shown minimal regard for their neighbors by playing the loud music for hours on end in the first place and whose character I don't know.

The alternative is to leave home until the party ends or to wait it out which is very difficult if you can't concentrate to read, watch TV, be on the computer, etc. Neither a very good option in my estimation. It's certainly understandable why most people probably do this because of the fear or the hassle of following through with a complaint.

My questions are: Have any of you had this problem and does your area have a more effective way of dealing with it that doesn't so openly expose and put on the spot the person whose peace is disturbed?

I'm seriously interested in researching this with the thought of changing the procedure here. [I have on occasion tried the direct approach of talking to the neighbor and they either are pleasant and then proceed to continue what they're doing or they get hostile. No surprise.] Constructive suggestions will be most appreciated.