Students, faculty and a community member rode along with the Charleston Police Department last Friday and Saturday looking for noise to continue testing decibel meters.

The ride-alongs were a second effort to test the two $1,200 meters that were purchased by the department last spring to monitor noise levels at parties.

Tickets issued for noise are now issued if the person complaining to the CPD wishes to press charges, said George Lesica, chair of the senate External Relations Committee and senate City Council Liaison.

The committee will discuss the results of the ride-alongs at the meeting tonight with committee member Mayor Dan Cougill.

Lesica said the meters were tested from a recommended distance of 50 meters and were used on one noise source Friday and five sources Saturday, but the results were not encouraging.

“We just drove around for things that looked loud,” he said. “Using these meters to give tickets could be unpractical.”

He said the meters detected noise levels ranging from 51 to 80 decibels, 50 decibels being the average level of human conversation.

If the meters become the only way to respond to noise complaints, too many tickets could be issued, Lesica said.

“If an ordinance was passed based on these meters, people would get a lot more tickets,” he said. “It wouldn’t contribute to the general friendliness of the neighbors.”

The External Relations meeting will discuss future plans for the meters if a city ordinance is not created to allow the meters to be used in issuing tickets, he said.

Only one noise source measured Friday was complaint-based and measured 51 decibels. Lesica said if a legal decibel limit was set for the meters, the complaint Saturday likely would not have been loud enough to be in violation.

“In that complaint, the people (who complained) probably were bothered, but it wasn’t loud enough for where a ticket would have been issued,” he said.

He said the meters could possibly still be used as warnings responding to noise complaints.

“Assuming we do not use them to give tickets, we may still use them to measure complaints,” Lesica said. “Let’s say your neighbor calls every single day and complains…they’ll be proof that you weren’t being loud. We can still get information out of them.”

The readings received this weekend reinforce the idea that the meters are unnecessary in issuing tickets, said External Relations member Kyle Donash, who rode along Friday.

“(The meters are) really not necessary, because it’s really not that loud. Those readings will definitely help us make that argument,” he said. “The way it is now is it’s just complaint-based. But, if we go to a decibel meter thing the cops would just come all the time.”

He said the meters could be used to monitor whether or not noise complaints are justified.

Depending on discussion at the committee meeting tonight, future tests such as setting up a mock situation to test varying noise levels could be possible, said committee member Reed Benedict, associate professor of sociology and anthropology.

Benedict, who rode along on the testing Friday, said deciding the future of the meters could be premature.

“I’m simply apprehensive until we fully test,” he said. “I’m not so sure we couldn’t use the decibel meters for a warning system.”