Bowling Green, KY Noise from Specific Sources: Car Alarm Limits (2026)

Sec. 9-3.04 of the Bowling Green Code of Ordinances, adopted by Ordinance BG2013-34 (November 5, 2013), lists exemptions from Chapter 9's noise rules. Subsection a. exempts any siren, whistle, horn or bell lawfully used by emergency vehicles, and any other alarm system used in case of fire, collision, civil defense, police activity or imminent danger, from the general prohibition on unreasonably loud or raucous noise in Sec. 9-3.03(a). The same subsection immediately qualifies that exemption for burglar alarms: a burglar alarm that has not terminated within thirty minutes after being activated is deemed a nuisance and is unlawful, regardless of the underlying exemption for alarm systems generally.

In practice this means a home or business burglar alarm sounding briefly after activation is lawful noise, but once it runs past the thirty-minute mark the property owner or alarm holder loses the exemption and becomes subject to citation the same as any other unreasonably loud noise violation. The section does not name a separate enforcement agency for alarms; Bowling Green Police Department officers responding to a prolonged alarm can treat the continued sounding past thirty minutes as an independent noise violation rather than protected emergency signaling.

Chapter 9's general penalty clause, Sec. 9-5, applies once the thirty-minute exemption lapses: a fine of up to $250, with each day the alarm continues past that window running as a separate offense, so a system that keeps re-triggering can generate repeated citations rather than a single flat fine.