It’s difficult to share a peaceful evening with your family when driving down your street is a car blasting loud, often vulgar, music. This has been a reoccurring problem in Selma — loud music — and finally, city officials are taking note and doing something about it.

We’re glad that our city council recently passed an ordinance allowing police officers to fine those riding in their cars with their music too loud. With this new ordinance, residents can face up to $500 in citation fines for driving with loud music.

And although this ordinance is a step in the right direction, we also encourage local authorities to heavily enforce this new rule. Michael Johnson, Ward 8 representative — a ward that has frequent issues with loud music — said it’s often difficult to enforce rules against loud music because other things take priority — like shootings and robberies. And while we agree with Johnson, we also think that law enforcement should begin to incorporate loud music into one of their heavily enforced rules.

If we don’t begin to crack down on this problem, it will only get worse.

As a city, we deserve quiet, safe streets, and we are confident that our police department can provide that.