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After a successful pilot program, the NYPD is adding a new siren called The Rumbler to over 150 patrol cars; this bad boy blasts a palpable sound wave that can be felt up to 200 feet away. According to The Rumbler's manufacturer [pdf], the siren has "the distinct advantage of penetrating and shaking solid materials, allowing vehicle operators and nearby pedestrians to FEEL the sound waves and perhaps even see their effects through a shaking rearview mirror." The company also warns that the siren and speakers "may cause hearing damage," and those who use it are encouraged to wear ear protection.
The NYPD says The Rumbler is intended for use when police need to speed through busy intersections or get the attention of drivers distracted by their own musical cacophony. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne tells the Post, "It emits vibrations that can be felt, so drivers, even with their windows rolled up and stereos on, can be alerted to the approach of emergency vehicles."
NYPD officials were initially hesitant to use The Rumbler because people might be "frightened," but we'll all probably get used to this new abomination soon enough, and then the NYPD will have to install The Annihilater to get everyone's attention. Browne says that The Rumbler may be expanded to more vehicles soon.
Richard Turr, founder of the anti-noise pollution group NoiseOFF, has this to say: "The NYPD purchased and installed The Rumbler with no oversight, no public hearings, and with no evident liability for the massive noise pollution they are about to inflict on New Yorkers, all in the name of public safety... People assume that noise pollution is an irritant or an annoyance, but noise pollution is a public health issue and it is adversely affecting residents. For people who live near any of the dozens of police precincts around the city and the boroughs, this is going to be an acoustic nightmare."
Below, a video of The Rumbler in action.
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does it make people lose control of their bodily functions? that would be super-awesome.
I'd appreciate it if I didn't lose bowel control upon hearing these rumblers. Its awesome, but still inconvenient to shit ones pants when your not prepared for it u know?
come on where is your sense of adventure? it could make for some phenomenal NYPD-Improv Everywhere hijinks.
Brown noise!
I can't wait to see and HEAR this new siren utilized for the fascist drills where 40 police cars convoy through 42nd street due to no actual emergency. Amp it up.
it's like a surprise may day!
Yeah, that shit gets ANNOYING! I always figure it's just one cop with the hershey squirts and the rest are trying to get him to a public bathroom, which is nigh impossible in this city.
bloomberg's plan to wreck havoc on old foundations, declare the building unsafe, sell to richie rich friends for a song.
"For people who live near any of the dozens of police precincts around the city and the boroughs, this is going to be an acoustic nightmare."
I live within a block of a precinct. I almost never hear sirens, except for an occasional split-second of the manual.
I think we can all rely on the NYPD to use these devices prudently and sparingly, and only when approaching an intersection where other options have been exhausted.
...Aw, hell, let's just give em' all whistle tips while we're at it
The whistles go Wooooooooooo!
I heart Bub Rub & Lil Sis.
YES! Its like an alarm click, wooWOOOOOO!!!!!
"a new high-decibel siren called The Rumbler"
It's low-frequency, not high-decibel. Decibel output isn't higher than a normal siren... in fact it seems judging from the video like it may be lower.
come on, it's a youtube video. there's no way to know how loud it is, especially since your speakers (and youtube audio) don't output very low frequencies.
You know what i heard when i first met you?
- No.
- Beeew, Beeew, Beeew, Beeew.
- What are you doing?
- That's an ambulance, come and take me away, 'cos the sight of you stopped my heart.
Is that what that was?
I saw/heard one of these in Queens earlier this summer and thought "WTF!?"
Cops are always using their sirens unnecessarily. On the highway to move through traffic and on the streets to clear through lights.
Once I was waiting for a bus and I saw a patrol car turn on its lights and get on its loudspeaker to tell a row of cars to "go ahead" because they were stopped at a light in front of a firehouse.
When the cops stop abusing their sirens. People will pay more attention to them.
If there is anyway to make it directional and has the ability to sterilize all the idiots that are in their own little world and don't move over when an emergency vehicle is behind them, so much the better.
YES! Its like an alarm clock, wooWOOOOOO!!!!!
Awesome, more sub-sonic fucking frequencies to set off car alarms in my neighborhood. The deaf idiots with 10,000watt subwoofers pounding out bad music while rolling down the street don't do that enough.
This is bad news. I'm constantly holding my ears when police, ambulances and firetrucks go by already. Good for my tinnitus.
If they can cause movement, we can look for more building collapses and sink hole opening up.
I actually heard this on 11th ave yesterday while walking in the 30's. While it didn't cause an instantaneous loss of bowel control, it definitely got our attention. The noise wasn't so loud that it hurt my ears, it was just very noticeable.
"It emits vibrations that can be felt, so drivers, even with their windows rolled up and stereos on, can be alerted to the approach of emergency vehicles."
It's not going to work with the people jibbly mentioned in [15]. They already have Rumblers installed inside their cars.
sounds like a good time to buy stock in hearing aids
Which is why I said "seems like."
But a little research reveals that the Rumbler outputs 109 decibels at 10 feet. A standard siren is generally somewhere between 120 and 125.
So, low-frequency not high-decibel. But I see now that the statement I quoted has been removed from the article anyway.
That was supposed to be a reply to imadick's statement about the youtube video in response to comment #10.
Another thing to wake my kid after I spent an hour getting him to sleep.
I was behind a crusier chasing a car on Flatbush Avenue last summer and they were using this siren. It was jarring but not horrible. Then again, I was behind the cop car, not in front of it.
"The company also warns that the siren and speakers "may cause hearing damage," and those who use it are encouraged to wear ear protection."
Not exactly. It says in the linked pdf file: "Sirens and Speakers may cause hearing damage. Wear hearing protection." It's a disclaimer referring to sirens in general. The way it's referenced above makes it appear to be a specific warning about this system, implying that the Rumbler is more likely to cause hearing damage than other sirens. No such statement is actually made by the manufacturer.
Man, I hate when cops use their sirens to push through heavy but moving traffic on the BQE, FDR, etc. Just relax and go with the flow, you'll get there faster. Instead, you are making everybody in front of you merge over, which just slows everything down.
The air conditioning in who's car deafens them?
That rumbling sound you hear? The Bronx.
I'm all for the police having modern sirens. Yet, I believe their use is abused. Sirens should be in a locked position until dispatchers release them. If a patrol requires use of their siren, they can radio in for permission/release. The technology is there. It's time to reign in the noise.
and what if central radio goes down?
Right. Because while we can trust them with guns, we really can't trust them with sirens.
If anyone abuses their sirens its ambulances, especially Hatzolah
like the cheese dosent already annoy the piss out of all of us anyways...now we'll have the abused highschool oddballs hitting that siren all the time..any bets on when the first pig-produced youtube vid of such is posted?
New York City has become a Police State environment where every aspect of normal life is subordinated to the obsession with pandering to the “conservative correctness” of idiotic worship and fealty to the NYPD and NYFD; ie, the cult of obedience and phony silly constant praise for anything that the white ethnic dominated uniformed service demand. This being epitomized most recently by the disgusting Giuliani sitting in the elitist first row box seats at Yankee (taxpayer funded) Stadium with his Nosferatu face (think of him on a bottle of poison in your medicine cabinet) capped by his NY Yankee NYPD/NYFD hat.
As for the “Rumblers”; NYC is already under a perpetual blast of idiotic and unnecessary noise from police and fireman playing with their sirens “because they can”.
Tonight as I write this, there have been relentlessly blasting sirens outside my windows for the last four hours without a stop.
But guess what…..a lot of money is ripped off taxpayers by “city officials” who steer contracts to siren manufacturers when this spending is utterly and completely unnecessary.
But who in this post 9/11 era of “Police Supremacy” will dare to say no to yet a new toy for our Police and Fire GODS !
They are to be worshipped constantly….even when two police officers are arrested within days for drunken driving resulting in death.
“Conservative Correctness” needs to be retired and active citizen empowerment and scrutiny of this crazy travesty needs to start NOW !
It’s enough.
It’s too much.
Sandra Moore
I read this post last week and had to revisit it today because I live on a cop block and they will not stop playing with their new "Rumbler" since they got it on Sunday. Perhaps I'll get used to it, but it's incredibly annoying. I also find it incredibly useless because they have that loud, but still low-pitch, Rumbler-like added horn that they can honk and add to their sirens.
Somehow I've gotten used to the added horns that I really think already get the job done, but this new addition is overkill. Overall living on a police block is quiet because they park diagonally on one side and make it impossible for non-essential trucks to squeeze through, but I live about 40 yards in from the avenue exactly where the cars at a red light get backed up to, so my living room now rumbles based on being in an unfortunately placed apartment that technically is ideally located nicely inside from the closest avenue.
When I first moved there 3 years ago, the cops barricaded the street off at the other end probably 50% of the time, thus leaving the street open to themselves without the need to blare their horn in the middle of the block, but they don't seem to do that so much these days. If they continue to enjoy their new Rumblers, they'd better start blocking the street off more often.