Greenwood County, SC Noise Ordinances: Amplified Music & Outdoor Sound (2026)

Greenwood County Code § 11-3-2(a)(14) addresses "loudspeakers or amplifiers on vehicles": it declares the use of any mechanical loudspeaker or amplifier on a truck or other vehicle for advertising or other purposes to be a loud, excessive, unnecessary, or disturbing noise, "except by permit from the sheriff." The clause sits within the county's general noise ordinance in § 11-3-2(a), which bars any loud, excessive, unnecessary, or disturbing noise in the unincorporated county absent a sheriff's permit, and related clauses use the same permit mechanism, including sheriff permits for building-operation noise outside normal hours (a)(8) and for attention-getting devices at performances or sales (a)(13).

Subsection (b) defines a violation as any regulated sound "plainly audible at a distance of 50 feet from its source," and subsection (d) allows the complaints of three or more residents, or one resident's complaint combined with a sheriff's deputy report, to serve as prima facie evidence of a violation. Subsection (e) authorizes the county sheriff to abate, as a public nuisance, any noise audible in public streets or places that breaks these standards. The ordinance was adopted by Ordinance No. 30-96, § I, November 19, 1996, and reaches only the unincorporated area of Greenwood County; the municipalities of Greenwood, Ninety Six, Ware Shoals, Hodges, and Troy set their own amplified-sound rules.