A Guelph man's crusade against noisy motorcycles in the city went to the Police Services Board last week.
Duncan MacKenzie insists excessively noisy motorcycles are still an issue in Guelph, even though it appears not a single ticket has been issued since the bylaw amendment came into effect four years ago.
MacKenzie appeared before the Guelph Police Services Board on Thursday, asking them to instruct police to be more proactive in its enforcement of the bylaw.
"What I would ask is that there's pro-active policing on this matter instead of reactive," said MacKenzie, who was one of the instigators of getting the bylaw amendment implemented in 2012.
He said more proactive policing would be more beneficial, given that if you wait for a complaint to be phoned in to police the potentially noisy motorcycle is often gone by the time police can react.
"They continue to thumb their noses at the bylaw," MacKenzie said.
He said he felt police view bylaw enforcement as "trivial."
"We don't get a lot of complaints about it," Guelph Police Jeff DeRuyter said. "I don't believe we have laid a ticket under the bylaw."
The police would be responsible for noise bylaw infractions on the road while city bylaw officers would be responsible for enforcement on private property such as driveways.
"We have to balance that out and prioritize what we do around the city," DeRuyter said of bylaw complaints made to police.
"Road safety is always going to trump bylaw enforcement. We have lots of bylaws that it's challenging for us to address," he said.
The idling limit for motorcycles is 92 decibles. The police do have a device on hand to measure decible level, but it is rarely used.
"I'd like this board to direct police to take this device out every shift," MacKenzie said to the Police Services Board.
DeRuyter said it is a bit of a grey area whether a police services board has any authority over police operational matters.
"The message on this is that there is a bylaw, it is a bylaw, but we have to prioritize that with all the other challenges that we get," the Police Chief said.
"This device is a tool that we have, like other tools."
The board took no action on MacKenzie's request.