NOISE IN THE ’HOODS

Rage amid new NYPD regs

Noise complaints have reached a deafening pitch across the city ever since the NYPD was forced to change its rules on dealing with wild parties and loud neighbors.

Lawmakers say constituents have been contacting them “almost every day” to lament the effect of a revision in the department’s patrol guide forbidding cops from entering homes over noise calls unless they have permission.

The shift was prompted by successful lawsuits against the city in which homeowners objected to cops entering their residences without warrants.

Councilman Fernando Cabrera (D-Bronx) said that for his University Heights constituents, the change is “incomprehensible.”

“This is a big deal,” Cabrera said. “I got complaints before the change in policy, and I’m getting more complaints now . . . It’s almost every day.”

There have been 210,580 noise complaints reported to the 311 hotline so far this year, a nearly 3 percent increase over the same time last year, according to the city’s Open Data Web site.

They run the gamut from dogs barking and loud TVs to noisy parties and late-night construction.

Since violators are now free to pump up the volume again as soon as cops leave the scene — with a threat of a summons the only real deterrent — neighbors are more likely to be pitted against one another to resolve a noise beef.

In a recent incident on Father Zeiser Place, Cabrera said one man’s loud sound system quickly became another’s reason to get in his face.

“It got very confrontational,” Cabrera recalled. “They almost got into a fight.”

Councilman Alan Maisel (DBrooklyn), who has a bill in the works to let cops to carry soundgauge units, said the new rules are particularly problematic in his Mill Basin-Canarsie district because so many row houses there are connected.

“The noise is just impossible,” he said. “People are really upset about it.”

It ranks as the top quality-of-life complaint to his office, Maisel said, adding that most people calling in are “afraid” to confront their neighbors because of the potential for violence. “It’s a real problem,” he said. Councilman Joe Borelli (R-SI) said while noise complaints often increase in the summer, residents in his district want cops to intervene to keep their streets quiet and clean.

“It’s an indication of the ‘progressive’ direction the city is going in when complaints against the Police Department take precedent over the community’s concerns over quality of life,” he said.

“I’ve yet to find any New Yorker who wants to find urine on their stoop.”

Noise is routinely the No. 1 complaint filed via 311.