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

Section 24-22(b)(9)c of the Craven County Code addresses horns and signaling devices of motor vehicles and motorcycles, the provision that reaches a vehicle's alarm or security siren as a signaling device. It bars sounding any horn or signaling device on an automobile, motorcycle or other vehicle on any street or public place of the county, except as a danger warning. It separately bars creating, by means of any such signaling device, an unreasonably loud or harsh sound; sounding any such device for an unreasonable amount of time; using a horn, whistle or other device operated by engine exhaust; and sounding a signaling device merely because traffic is held up.

Authorized emergency vehicles are exempt and may use warning sounds. The code does not maintain a separate section addressing aftermarket car alarms as a distinct category; a vehicle alarm that sounds repeatedly or for an unreasonable duration on a public street, or in a manner causing a noise disturbance across a real property boundary or noise-sensitive zone, falls under this general signaling-device rule and the noise-disturbance definitions in Section 24-20. The Sheriff's Office enforces the article and may stop and test a vehicle suspected of a violation under Section 24-21. § 14-4, layered onto the general penalty in Sections 1-11 and 1-12.