Maya McFadden Photo
Officer Carfora: On noise patrol.
The calls were coming in from the East Shore. From Long Wharf. From Fair Haven. Even in East Haven and Branford, people were hearing music blasting through the middle of the night.
Officer Christian Carfora set out to track down the noise. He eventually came across the source, by the Quinnipiac River, and took action.
Carfora’s search began in the moments just after midnight early last Saturday. It was part of the police department’s efforts to respond to concern over excessive noise and other quality-of-life nuisances.
Carfora laid out the story in a police report, which was provided by request to the Independent. (Repeated efforts to reach the arrestees by phone and in person proved unsuccessful.)
Here’s what Carfora stated happened:
He was assigned to begin a “noise complaint detail” at 12:20 a.m. He was particularly on the lookout for “vehicles equipped with Disc Jockey-quality speakers, oftentimes positioned outside the vehicle or mounted to the roof.” People operate these systems by remote control, often wearing “hearing protection” because the music gets so loud. They often set up on Long Wharf Drive or on the other side of the harbor. As a result, the NHPD has been hearing from East Shore neighbors who report being bombarded by the music.
By 12:08 a.m. Saturday, police had already received seven such complaints in less than an hour. Officers responded, and found “a group of vehicles with extremely loud stereos and speakers mounted on the roof in the area of Waterfront Street near the Harbor.”
The operators sped away as officers approached. But they kept the volume up. So officers followed the trail.
Carfora tracked the “blaring music” to the dead end of Poplar Street at River Street, by the Quinnipiac River. As he got closer, anonymous complaints about the music poured in, from Upson Terrace, Woodward Avenue, Fort Hale Road, and Judith Terrace.
Carfora arrived at the dead end to find five people by three vehicles” with “large speakers covering the roofs of the vehicles.”
Other officers arrived to help address the situation. They checked people’s car registrations. One owner’s Toyota Camry “has been involved with previous noise complaints,” Carfora learned. That owner, a 30-year-old Poplar Street man, was given a misdemeanor summons for disorderly conduct. He has a Nov. 30 court date.
A second participant, a 28-year-old Ferry Street man, “became argumentative and repeatedly stated that we were stopping him for ‘no reason,’” Carfora wrote. He wrote that the man “would not listen to the officer’s explanation of the noise ordinance and began screaming at officers and making it difficult for officers to explain the violation to other individuals present.”
Then the man started “pacing around the area of the parked vehicles and positioning himself in between officers and other individuals while screaming over the officers’ words.” Police handcuffed and detained him in a police cruiser, then issued him a summons for disorderly conduct. He has a Nov. 19 court date.
Two others present, a 28-year-old Bridgeport man and a 32-year-old Union City, N.J., man, were issued citations for creating a public disturbance, according to the report.