DECATUR - Listening to music while driving has become an expensive hobby for James Wright.

Actually, Wright doesn't just listen to music.

He feels the music, too, with a trunk full of subwoofers thumping out bass sounds.

Wright, 31, of Decatur said he has been fined more than $2,000 in recent years for violating the city's strict noise ordinance to curb loud music booming out of cars.

Still, Wright doesn't plan to change his listening habits.

"I ain't got caught this year," Wright said.

Residents complained to the Decatur City Council in recent years about noise pollution in their neighborhoods.

Councilmen responded in September 2003 by enacting a new law with stiff fines.

Under the ordinance, drivers may not operate any kind of sound amplification system that can be heard 75 feet from the vehicle.

If they do, the owner and operator each could be fined $250, or $500 if the owner and operator are the same person. The vehicle is confiscated until the fine is paid.

More motorists typically are cited over the summer months, when windows are down and young adults are cruising.

The Decatur Police Department is stepping up its enforcement efforts again this year.

Police typically issue one or two tickets per month over the winter.

About 20 to 40 tickets are issued each month over the summer, said Deputy Police Chief James Chervinko.

The police department issued "well over" 300 tickets between May 2007 and April 2008, Chervinko said.

Former police Chief Mark Barthelemy in 2003 voiced concerns to the council about approving such an ordinance. Similar ordinances in other communities have helped cut noise problems, Barthelemy said, but the ordinances can generate increased allegations of racial profiling, he cautioned.

Chervinko said motorists cited for violating the noise ordinance come from diverse backgrounds, representing males and females with varying ages and races.

"It's really spread out," Chervinko said.

Even with the stiff fines, repeat offenders are not uncommon.

Chervinko said one female was issued two tickets at different times on the same day last year.

Mayor Paul Osborne said the public response to the noise ordinance has been "very positive."

"Certainly, when someone is fined, they don't care much for that," Osborne said. "But it's achieving what we set out to do in passing it."

Noise booming out of vehicles was so loud in some neighborhoods that residents had trouble getting a good night's sleep, Osborne said.

Some complained of being rattled out of bed from the thumping sounds of car stereos.

"The ability to sleep and get their children to sleep, that's certainly a serious problem," Osborne said. "Those people thank me and the city council over and over."

Some defenders of the noise ordinance say they still are plagued by other forms of sound pollution.

"It's wrong to drive down the street with your stereo going, 'boom, boom, boom,' " said Max Pressgrove, who lives on the 2100 block of North Maple Avenue. "But noise is noise, no matter what the source is."

Pressgrove said equally annoying are a motorcycle enthusiast who revs his engine or a preacher who sometimes gives impassioned outdoor sermons down the street.

Other neighbors have complained about hot rod cars and enhanced pickup trucks that go screeching and rumbling through their neighborhoods.

Still, motorists with loud stereos know to turn them down when the police are around, Pressgrove said.

"As soon as they notice a police car, they don't just shut it down a little. They shut it off," Pressgrove said. "They're smart enough to know what happens if they keep it up."

Community activist Keith Anderson proposed the noise ordinance to the council, and he is pleased with the results.

Residents can get a good night's sleep, and emergency responders say motorists now can hear them coming.

"It's wonderful," Anderson said.

Anderson talks with dozens of local teens through his Homework Hangout after-school program and says they understand the intent of the ordinance.

"Now that it has been enacted, the younger generation is more comfortable with it, and they see the necessity for it," Anderson said. "It hasn't changed their perspective on listening to music other than the respect and consideration for others."

Bishop Mark Bond of Bible Way Pentecostal Church continues to urge the city council to consider revising the ordinance.

Bond says he doesn't oppose a law to curb loud music, but he thinks the penalties are too severe.

The noise ordinance "opens the door" for racial profiling and is seen as targeting inner-city residents, Bond said.

Bond said his church's secretary in recent years was cited for violating the noise ordinance while taking her children to register for school.

"A noise ordinance could be beneficial, but not to the point of towing people's vehicles," Bond said. "To put someone out in the rain, in the snow, in cold, at night and tell them to walk home, that's just ridiculous to me."

Some young music fans, including Kyle Kaylor, 23, of Decatur have little use for the ordinance.

Kaylor said he has been warned by police to turn down his music, and several of his friends have been fined.

"I'd prefer the ordinance wasn't as strict," Kaylor said. "If you don't want to hear the music, roll up the window and listen to your own music."

Some neighbors say they hear the music even with windows in their vehicles and homes closed.

Kaylor said the noise ordinance has not deterred his friends from cranking up their music.

"I think it's just a way to make the city some money," Kaylor said of the stiff fines.

Some avid music listeners, such as Mike Brady, 22, have invested in sound suppression materials to dampen the noise heard outside the vehicle.

"If that wasn't in there, it would sound like somebody getting in a car wreck," Brady said. "It would sound like a bunch of metal flopping around."

Brady works at Alpha Omega Auto Sound, 3160 N. Woodford St.

Even with the sound dampening material, the speakers packed into Brady's sport utility vehicle are loud enough to make rain drops bounce on top of his vehicle to the beat of the music.

And it doesn't take a trunk full of aftermarket stereo equipment to run afoul of the city's noise ordinance.

Motorists can get ticketed even while playing music on factory speakers, said Michael Rodden, owner of Alpha Omega Auto Sound.

The ordinance likely has an effect on sales for auto stereo shops, Rodden said.

Rodden said he often sells more bigger equipment at his Taylorville store than at his Decatur store, though the Decatur market is larger.

A strict noise ordinance also could lead visitors to steer clear of a community, Rodden said.

"If some businessman goes driving through town and gets a $500 citation, what is he going to think about Decatur?" Rodden said. "He'll definitely turn his radio down, but he's probably going to go all the way around the city the next time, unless he absolutely has to.

"All they're doing is making more of a mess, and the court system needs to focus on a whole lot of other problems."

If the city was serious about preventing noise pollution, there are many more serious violators than music listeners, Rodden said.

"Semis, dump trucks, motorcycles - there are so many things out there that make so much more noise than a stereo, it's not even funny," Rodden said.

Osborne said the noise ordinance has improved the quality of life for residents in many neighborhoods.

The mayor is puzzled why anyone would play their music so loudly.

"At a stop light, it's harmful to my ears," Osborne said. "I can only imagine what it's doing to people in the vehicle."

Mike Frazier can be reached at mfrazier@herald-review.com or 421-7985.