Greenwood County, SC Noise from Specific Sources: Car Alarm Limits (2026)

Greenwood County Code § 11-3-2(a) makes it unlawful in the unincorporated county to make or continue any loud, excessive, unnecessary, or disturbing noise without a permit from the sheriff. Subsection (a)(1) singles out "blowing horns": sounding or blowing any horn or signal device on an automobile, motorcycle, motor bus, or other vehicle, except as a genuine danger signal when another vehicle appears out of control or while in motion, and it separately bars "the creation by means of any signal device of any loud or harsh noise and the sounding of such device for any unnecessary period of time," language that covers a vehicle alarm left blaring.

Subsection (b) defines a violation objectively: any regulated sound that is "plainly audible at a distance of 50 feet from its source." Subsection (d) lets the complaints of three or more people, or one complaint combined with a report from the sheriff or a deputy, serve as prima facie evidence of a violation, and subsection (e) declares noises audible in public streets or places that break these standards a public nuisance the sheriff may abate. Emergency-vehicle sirens and warning devices are expressly exempted under subsection (c)(2)-(3). The ordinance, adopted by Ordinance No. 30-96, § I, November 19, 1996, applies only within the unincorporated area of Greenwood County.