Sampson County, NC Noise Ordinances: Amplified Music & Outdoor Sound (2026)

Sampson County Code § 4-6-02 makes it unlawful to willfully make or continue any loud, raucous or disturbing noise anywhere in the county, defined as sound that, by its volume, duration or character, annoys, disturbs, injures or endangers the comfort, health, peace or safety of reasonable persons of ordinary sensibilities. Clause (3) applies that standard specifically to televisions, radios, boom boxes, stereos, tape or CD players, phonographs, musical instruments and any sound production or amplifying equipment, whether operated from a vehicle or a building. Property owners who knowingly allow this noise to occur on their land are liable along with whoever operates the equipment.

The ordinance applies at all times of day or night throughout unincorporated Sampson County and within any incorporated town that has not adopted its own noise ordinance; where a town has its own ordinance, that town's rule controls inside its limits instead. The Board of Commissioners may also grant a special permit under § 4-6-04 for a business, educational or civic activity expected to generate otherwise-prohibited noise. Enforcement runs through § 4-6-05: a sheriff's deputy, certified law enforcement officer, or animal control officer may cite a violator directly, and the ordinance carries both criminal and civil tracks rather than a single fixed decibel threshold.