Concord, NC Noise from Specific Sources: Car Alarm Limits (2026)

Section 30-204(4) makes the outdoor sounding of an emergency signaling device, defined broadly to include fire, burglar and civil defense alarms, sirens and whistles, a per se noise violation except in a genuine emergency or as narrowed by two carve-outs. Subsection (4)b is the one that reaches car alarms specifically: sounding or permitting the sounding of an exterior burglar or fire alarm, or a motor vehicle burglar alarm, must terminate within 15 minutes of activation unless an actual emergency is occurring. The ordinance also tracks repeat false alarms: if a car alarm or other covered alarm has a false or accidental activation more than twice within a calendar month, the owner or person responsible for it is in violation of the article regardless of how quickly any individual activation was silenced.

, a minimum test cycle time, a five-minute cap per test, and no more than one test per calendar month, though that testing rule targets fixed alarm systems rather than vehicle alarms specifically. Concord's general exemptions in § 30-205(3) preserve the right of emergency vehicles and alarm systems to sound during a genuine emergency, collision, fire, or police activity. Enforcement runs through the city manager, chief of police or a designee under § 30-209, and complaints go to the Concord Police Department under § 30-208.