Hackensack, NJ Noise from Specific Sources: Car Alarm Limits (2026)

Section 112-9E of the noise ordinance, adopted April 10, 2018 by Ordinance 07-2018, targets alarms specifically because a malfunctioning or improperly set unit can broadcast sound indefinitely across a real property line. The rule covers both building alarms and motor vehicle alarms, interior and exterior alike, and requires the alarm to terminate its own operation within five minutes if it produces continuous airborne sound, or within 15 minutes if the sound is intermittent, counted from the moment the alarm activates. Unlike the chapter's other restricted-use categories, this limit runs at all times of day; the surrounding Table I, II and III decibel limits do not override it.

The provision sits in the same section, § 112-9, that also restricts residential and commercial power tools, construction work and snow-removal equipment, and it is enforced the same way: by the Hackensack Health Department's Noise Control Officers and Investigators under §§ 112-5 and 112-11. An alarm owner whose system runs past the five- or fifteen-minute mark is in violation regardless of intent, since the section imposes a strict operating limit rather than a complaint-based nuisance standard.