Even before this, researchers have noticed that a few people generate a disproportionate number of noise complaints (both links from 2016):

US: https://www.mercatus.org/publications/airport-noise-nimbyism

UK: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-37803205 (half of the around 25,000 complaints were made by 10 people)

I wonder if these people are more susceptible to noise than others, or are simply more tolerant of / more incentivized to navigating bureaucracy to file complaints.

Either way, it'll be interesting to see how a "dash buttons" approach to filing complaints affects these numbers.

On the disproportionate number of noise complaints from a few people: I've noticed in my own case that there was a huge bar to making my first noise complaint (I don't live under a flight path, but across from a beach park where people like to party after hours and blast loud music). The first few times I suffered through it. Eventually it was so bad, I went out at 3am to ask, politely, for them to keep it down (the park closes at 10pm). I didn't want to be "that guy" that calls the cops on a bunch of kids just looking to have a good time. The guy who owned the car blasting the music was apologetic and immediately complied, but one of his friends got in my face about it. Another couple of incidents like that and, well, fuck it, I'm not going to risk bodily harm to try to be cool for some total strangers. I called the cops, who responded in minutes. Problem solved. Once I crossed that line, I hear music blasting after midnight, I call the cops without hesitation. Aside from my own peace of mind, I like to think I'm helping my neighbors who may be still be in the suffering stage. I have no doubt that I make many more noise complaints than they do.

Funny I had the opposite experience in the UK (London). Some 50-ish cars doing a sort of illegal car tuning gathering under my windows in the middle of the night (midnight). It wasn't the first time and I knew it could last for a couple of hours. Making loud noise with their engines and sound systems. I first went to speak to them and asked them to move around (they were also obstructing the traffic). They just laughed. I then called the non emergency police line, talked to a very nice and courteous officer, whose job seemed to be providing reassuring words but did nothing about it.

In the UK noise is the purview of councils, not the police.

The police only get involved if it's coupled with other behaviour like threats of violence.

If it's happening regularly you're probably better off going to your local councillor. Also your local area liaison police officer. Even better if you get a few of your neighbours involved.

Yeah, the non-emergency number seems to be a placebo to me - I've never heard of anyone getting any results by ringing it. I'm sure things were better when one used to be able to ring the local station direct.

100% this. We have had a spate of crime, muggings and drug-related issues around our area in the last 6 months or so, the local police & residents have met numerous times about it. Lots of words and "please call the non-emergency 101 number when you see these gatherings" - I then spent an entire HOUR on hold to the 101 before giving up. A couple were mugged later that evening by that very group...

In Los Angeles I’ve used the non emergency line a bunch due to homeless individuals causing issues, and in every case I’ve had a cop come within the hour. I know because they always give me a ring when they are at the location to just walk through what I saw.

My experience doesn’t seem to mirror everyone’s though in LA, so it may have just been the Wilshire division was all over it.

Be thankful you aren't in a country where three successive governments have been pushing "austerity" for a decade, then.

The current one has even had the temerity lately to outright deny that their public sector cuts, which include policing, are in any way related to the obvious rise in low-level crime and disorder here.

I’ve used the non-emergency number when students parties get a bit out of hand and are noisy at 2pm.

They don’t promise anything but ultimately a patrol car wanders by about 30-60 minutes later and quite often they park up and “investigate”.

This usually results in very much quieter parties for the duration of their tenancy.

The force in London is pretty busy, by all accounts. This would definitely be one for the emergency number in smaller towns.

Agree, which is why I would have never used the emergency number. But I am sure a single patrol car passing by and telling them to move on would have been sufficient.

The met typically doesn’t “investigate” unless there are drugs, knives, or “black youths” (I’m not kidding you) involved.

Your story is a great illustration of how accurate data can lead people to wrong conclusions. There’s no substitute for a qualitative understanding of the phenomenon being studied.

I’ve always preferred quantitative data, though the pros and cons of each were explained to me by a physicist who was hardly non-biased.

All data has limitations and context which must be understood, or else one may reach wrong conclusions. I think the limitations of quantitative data are often not properly acknowledged. Of course, data can be still be very useful.

There's an empty lot near our building and it gets occupied by students a lot. I just open my window and shout (I am the "Ruhe bitte guy"). From their perspective, someone is crazy enough to shout outside the window, so it works 100%. My next step would be calling the police but honestly never had to do this. Even if I did, the police in Germany are usually too kind to scare them :)

I don't feel like any sane person can reason with drunk people (worse, teenagers) who are making noise at 2 am - except when they are your neighbors or you know them somehow.

I heared that cops tend to respond very quickly and seriously to noise complaints as such situations have a tendency to get out of hand and turn into violence or worse.

Quick tip: one of simple ways of turning it into an out of hand situation is to go and try to solve the noise problem by yourself.

Interestingly, you eventually became "that guy".

More like his neighbors became "those people"

In 2016, Schiphol airport got about 200k complaints, 150k of which were made by 35 people.[0] That's 11 a day, every day, assuming they all made the same number of complaints, which I doubt.

[0]: https://airnoise.io/

It could well be 200 000 people if the process was as easy as pressing a button.

I think some people just have a lower threshold for some of this behavior by business that profits while making those around them uncomfortable.

Case in point: I absolutely despise the fact that I have to pick up after a company because they want to throw their free newspapers and advertisements on my lawn and entryway.

Someone even clipped a flyer to my window one wet morning, an it completely adhered to the glass.

Yet this behavior is literally permitted by my local government, which handed these outfits permits for their planned activities.

Perhaps, although it's a bit odd to discount complaints simply because someone didn't go through another frustrating process to make the complaint.

Optimistically this might allow people to complain that otherwise wouldn't have bothered, and while it might be possible to explain away an increase in the number of complaints if it comes from a few people it becomes harder to ignore when these complaints come from a large group of people.

Exactly, boiler plate duplicate spam complaints > boiler plate meaningless reply.

We used to have a system where excessive complaints by an individual would be considered an offense: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_scold