RIO RANCHO, N.M. – The Rio Rancho Police Department has been busy with noise complaint calls. According to the department, they responded to more than 1,000 calls last year but only seven resulted in a citation.

City councilors are revisiting the noise ordinance after the deputy city manager said their current ordinance is vague and difficult for officers to enforce.

Residents who spoke with KOB 4 said the noise level depends on the time of day.

“It’s not too terribly noisy except evenings and weekends when the kids are out of school,” said Seveda Schutten, a Rio Rancho resident.

City staff is proposing a decibel system to make the noise regulations more objective.

During the day, residential areas would have to keep it below 55 decibels. At night, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., they would have to keep the noise down to 50 decibels.

KOB 4 asked residents if they thought the ordinance change would be helpful.

“I think so that way hopefully gets them to turn it down just a bit especially if you have smaller kids,” said Schutten.

“I think that would be beneficial for something like that but as far as our neighborhood we have older people they don’t really throw really hard parties here or nothing like that,” said David Sanchez, another Rio Rancho Resident.

Retail and commercial businesses are slightly higher, in the day they would have to keep the noise to 65 decibels and at night it would go down to 60 decibels.

Residents we spoke to say they’re more concerned with the noise from cars up and down busy streets like Unser.

“On Unser, it’s a race track out there. Motorcycles, cars, they go up and down racing up and down dogs are barking that is loud out there, not our neighborhood. Our neighborhood is pretty quiet,” said Terrell Alexander, another Rio Rancho resident.

“I’ll have to see how they handle it. It’s great to have it. I think you said 60 decibels or so is a conversation. That would be acceptable. But it’s the cars that bother me more than my neighbors,” said one resident who did not want to be identified.

According to the city, it would take about $12,000 to get the police department decibel meters. Even if they tighten up the ordinance, enforcement would still be complaint-driven. The item will have its first reading at Thursday night’s city council meeting. They will need to have a second reading before anything is finalized.