Camden County, NJ Noise Ordinances: Amplified Music & Outdoor Sound (2026)

Article VI's general prohibition opens at § 6.1, barring any verbal or mechanical noise disturbance while exempting noncommercial public speaking and assembly on public property. Section 6.2.1 then targets everyday sound equipment: 'Operating, playing, or permitting the operation or playing of any radio, television, phonograph, or similar device that reproduces or amplifies sound in such a manner as to create a noise disturbance for any person other than the operator of the device' is prohibited at any hour, day or night, because the standard is disturbance-based rather than tied to a clock.

Section 6.2.2 adds a time-bound rule for public-facing equipment: using a loudspeaker, public address system or similar device 'between the hours of 10:00pm and 8:00am' is prohibited if the sound 'creates a noise disturbance across a residential real property line.' Both provisions rely on the ordinance's definition of 'noise disturbance' in § 2.14, any sound that endangers safety or health, disturbs a reasonable person of normal sensitivities, or endangers property, so a violation does not require a specific decibel reading; a noise control officer's judgment that the sound meets that standard is enough to support enforcement.

The two sections work together at an outdoor event with speakers and recorded music: daytime volume only has to avoid disturbing a neighbor under § 6.2.1, but after 10:00 p.m. the loudspeaker use itself becomes presumptively regulated under § 6.2.2 regardless of whether a separate radio or stereo is also playing.