Covington council updates noise and disturbing-the-peace ordinances after public concerns

The Covington City Council on March 3 adopted limited revisions to the city's noise-control and disturbing-the-peace ordinances, saying the updates remove outdated, technical language and better enable police to issue citations where appropriate.

Council President introduced ordinance 2026-02-01 to amend Chapter 42 (environmental/noise control) and said the changes are not a wholesale rewrite but are intended to remove barriers that had prevented officers from enforcing certain disturbances. The council kept construction-noise provisions intact so that permitted and unpermitted construction can be handled through code enforcement and permits.

During the separate public hearing on the disturbing-the-peace ordinance (2026-02-02), resident Robin Schulberg urged the council to avoid language that could amount to viewpoint discrimination, arguing that broadly banning "annoying" or "offensive" speech risks First Amendment problems. "Including whistles ... makes it look like you're giving police a reason to arrest those people," Schulberg said, citing neighbors who use whistles to alert others to immigration-enforcement activity.

Deputy Chief Kevin Collins described enforcement as discretionary and based on the totality of the circumstances. "We take into consideration the totality of the circumstances," Collins said, adding that officers do not immediately write citations for strongly worded speech and that the department evaluates each incident against criteria.

Council members who supported the ordinances said the intent is to restore practical enforcement tools rather than to criminalize ordinary speech. After taking public comment and brief discussion, the council closed the hearings and carried both ordinances on roll-call votes; no roll-call tallies recorded any no or abstain votes on the measures.

The council president said the city will continue a broader review of its code of ordinances and invited public involvement in that process. The revised disturbing-the-peace language will be subject to further public review as part of that larger overhaul.