Allentown, PA Noise from Specific Sources: Car Alarm Limits (2026)

City of Allentown Codified Ordinances § 400-3C(3)(c) prohibits sounding or permitting the sounding of any exterior burglar alarm or motor vehicle burglar alarm unless the alarm automatically terminates within six minutes of activation. The rule sits inside the broader list of specific prohibitions in § 400-3C, which the Department of Police enforces under § 400-3B; the Bureau of Health has no role here because vehicle alarms fall under the Police-enforced subsection rather than the Bureau-enforced § 400-3E. A car alarm that cycles on and off for longer than six minutes straight is treated as a noise disturbance under Chapter 400, Noise, regardless of whether anyone files a complaint about a specific decibel reading.

for up to 60 seconds, but that testing allowance does not extend the six-minute cap on a vehicle burglar alarm. Enforcement runs through the citation and violation-ticket process in § 400-8: officers may issue a $100 violation ticket, and a resident who believes a citation was wrongly issued can request a hearing before the Hearing Board created under § 400-4, a five-member panel appointed by the Mayor with City Council consent that includes a professional audiologist or acoustician and a lawyer. Owners who anticipate a legitimate need to run an alarm longer, such as a security contractor testing new equipment, must apply to the Hearing Board for a variance under § 400-5B rather than assume the six-minute limit will be waived informally.