Jackson, MS Noise Ordinances: Vehicle Noise (2026)

Section 118-18, codified from the 1971 Code § 27-24, sits in Chapter 118's traffic-regulation article and gives police a standalone tool against vehicle noise separate from the property-line decibel test in Chapter 54's noise article. The text is broad by design: it does not set a decibel threshold or require a complaint from a neighboring property owner, only that the vehicle be 'loaded or constructed' in a way that causes unnecessary noise, which covers a dragging tailpipe, a modified or removed muffler, or cargo that rattles or bangs while the vehicle is driven on a city street. A cross-reference ties the section to Mississippi's own unnecessary-horn-use statute, MCA 1972 § 63-7-65(1), showing the ordinance was written to complement, not replace, state traffic law.

Because Chapter 118 does not list a specific fine for § 118-18, enforcement falls back on Chapter 1's general penalty clause, § 1-10, which applies 'whenever in this Code...any act is prohibited...where no specific penalty is provided.' That section authorizes a fine up to $1,000.00, imprisonment up to the state-law maximum for the offense, or both, with each day a violation continues counted as a separate offense. The noise article elsewhere in the Code, §§ 54-86 through 54-92, defines 'muffler-approved type' as an apparatus that cuts exhaust sound by at least 20 decibels; while that definition governs the separate property-line decibel test rather than § 118-18 directly, it is the benchmark officers reference when judging whether an exhaust modification is causing unnecessary noise.