Honk honk! Can noise cameras reduce ‘potentially fatal’ sound pollution?

As noise detectors are installed in a rich neighborhood of Manhattan, experts worry they will punish people of color

Honking cars, blasting stereos, babbling neighbors: consider it all part of the symphony that plays daily on New York City streets. Everyone knows the city is loud, and politicians have waged a long, losing war against noise. Now they have a new weapon: noise cameras.

The cameras, which are paired with a sound meter to detect noise of at least 85 decibels from a source 50ft or more away, have recently been installed on certain streets in Manhattan’s wealthy Upper West Side.