The consensus regarding the Muncie Campus Community Coalition's noise ordinance policy is that enforcement will be the key to the proposal's success. But for proper and complete enforcement to even be a possibility, communication systems must first be in place.
At the coalition's Thursday meeting, members said they intend to conduct trainings to increase knowledge among police officers regarding the affidavit of occupancy and noise ordinance policies. Yes, police officers. Law enforcers had been expected to put these policies into practice without sufficient knowledge of the policies themselves or the consequences of violation.
Beyond that, the Muncie Police Department's computer system is not yet fully prepared to process policy violations for the "No Party Property" regulation. During the summer, the "No Party Property" plan was proposed for the purpose of beefing up the consequences for violations of the noise ordinance, which was not being satisfactorily enforced at the time. Now, months later, the policy is supposed be in place, but neither the police force nor the technology have been caught up to speed enough for the policy to truly be in effect. Therefore, enforcement is, for the time being, quite arbitrary - as it was for so long with the parking ordinance.
If the Muncie Campus Community Coalition wants to have any force within the community, it must be able to work well with the community so the city can enact its policies. And that goes beyond simply getting them passed by City Council.
The various forces at work here must come together to share knowledge and make policies clear among enforcers. Otherwise, the policies might as well never have been proposed or passed in the first place.
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