The basic goal of the "Muncie Area Party Plan" was to increase the consequences for and enforcement of the noise ordinance policy already in place. The Muncie Police Department, however, has yet to conduct the training session that would make enforcement of the policy easier and more consistent.
Unfortunately, the department doesn't have time for that kind of thing.
Although the plan passed in October, it took until December to set up the first training session, which was then postponed because it wasn't high enough on the department's priority list. Now it's nearly February - almost four months later - and still no training session has been conducted.
In addition, no properties have received enough violations to be labeled "No Party Properties," so the noise ordinance being enforced is virtually unchanged from the pre-party plan ordinance that was not being enforced.
Either, Muncie was not prepared at the time City Council passed the ordinance to put it into effect, or the plan never should have been passed in the first place.
If the police department was not ready or able to train officers on proper implementation of the plan, City Council should not have passed it until police could feasibly enforce it.
The continuous breakdown of cooperation between segments of the city's service providers - in this case, the police department and the City Council - is leading to another chance for halfway-sincere enforcement of policies that are not entirely understood by their enforcers.
On the other hand, the fact that tickets are being issued and fines are being paid could indicate there was no reason for the party plan in the first place - all the city needed was an impetus to increase enforcement of the existing regulation.
Now, with enforcement up despite no real changes to the noise ordinance, there doesn't seem to be much need for the "Muncie Area Party Plan."
If the police department doesn't make this training session a priority soon, it might as well throw out the party plan entirely.
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