Birmingham, AL Noise from Specific Sources: Car Alarm Limits (2026)

City Code Sec. 11-8-23(13), part of Article B (Noises) of Chapter 8, lists 'emergency signaling devices' among the acts declared unlawful when they annoy, disturb, injure or endanger the comfort, health, peace or safety of reasonable persons of ordinary sensibilities. The rule is narrow but absolute on timing: an exterior burglar alarm or a motor vehicle burglar alarm must be wired or set to terminate automatically within 15 minutes of activation, unless there has actually been an attempted or actual entry of the premises or vehicle that justifies the alarm continuing to sound.

Sec. 11-8-22 defines 'alarm' broadly to include any fire, burglary, motor vehicle or civil defense alarm, whistle or similar stationary emergency signaling device, and defines 'plainly audible' as clearly heard at 50 feet from a structure or ten feet from a vehicle in a manner that annoys, disturbs, injures or endangers reasonable persons. Sec. 11-8-24 tells enforcement officers what to weigh when a car alarm complaint comes in: the volume and intensity of the noise, whether it is usual or unusual for the time and place, its proximity to sleeping facilities, the zoning and density of the surrounding area, the time of day, and whether the alarm is recurrent, intermittent or constant.

Sec. 11-8-25 exempts sound from public safety vehicles and authorized emergency signaling used to alert people to an actual emergency, so a police or fire vehicle alarm sounding during a real response is not a violation. A car owner whose factory or aftermarket alarm cycles indefinitely without an actual intrusion is not protected by that exemption and can be cited once the 15-minute mark passes.