Downey, CA Noise Ordinances: Quiet Hours (2026)

Section 4602 of the Downey Municipal Code, in place since Ordinance 96 in 1958 and amended by Ordinance 508 in 1976, sets two distinct standards for radios, receiving sets, musical instruments, phonographs, and other sound-producing or reproducing machines. The general, all-hours rule bars using such a device so as to disturb the peace, quiet, and comfort of neighboring inhabitants, or playing it louder than necessary for convenient hearing by the voluntary listeners actually in the room, vehicle, or chamber where it operates. , no one may operate such a device, while it is under their control, in a manner where the sound is plainly audible at a distance of 50 feet from the building, structure, or vehicle housing it.

The 50-foot, plainly-audible test gives police an objective measure they can apply at the scene without a sound meter, unlike the daytime standard, which turns on whether the volume disturbs an actual neighbor. The nighttime rule sits alongside § 4603, which separately and completely bars using loudspeakers, sound amplifiers, or similar advertising equipment once their sound is cast onto a public street, and § 4605, which applies the same peace-and-comfort standard to barking dogs and other animal noise, so Downey's quiet-hours scheme covers electronic sound, advertising amplification, and animal noise as three related but separately enforced provisions.