Bristol, CT Noise from Specific Sources: Car Alarm Limits (2026)

Bristol's noise ordinance folds car alarms into its broader definition of "intrusion alarm" in Sec. 15-17: any device with an audible signal that, when activated, indicates intrusion by an unauthorized person. Sec. 15-19(f) exempts "noise created by a fire or intrusion alarm" from the article's general decibel standards, but only for a limited window measured from the moment the audible signal activates: ten minutes when the alarm is attached to a vehicle, or thirty minutes when attached to a building or structure. A car alarm that keeps sounding past its ten-minute window loses the exemption and becomes an "excessive noise" source measured against the standards in Sec.

15-21(b), the zone-based decibel table that sets lower ceilings for noise reaching a residential receptor. Sec. 15-23(a) additionally bars hindering or interfering with a city agent enforcing the article, which covers efforts to stop an officer from addressing a persistently sounding alarm. Enforcement runs through the Bristol Police Department under Sec. 15-24, on complaint or on the department's own initiative, and Sec. 15-25 sets the fine at $90 for the first day a violation continues, $200 for a second consecutive day, and $400 for every day after that.

Sec. 15-22 lets an owner apply to the mayor for a variance from the article's provisions at least twenty days before a planned activity, though a malfunctioning car alarm is not the kind of planned event that variance process anticipates.