Hempstead, NY Noise from Specific Sources: Car Alarm Limits (2026)

Chapter 144, the Town's noise-control chapter, lists specific prohibited noises in § 144-3. Subsection O targets alarms directly: an offense occurs when a person installs, maintains or uses "any audible burglar alarm or fire alarm" that is not equipped with a device that automatically shuts it off after 30 minutes of continuous sound. A second, separate offense is created for actually letting such an alarm emit sound audible beyond the user's real property boundary for more than 30 continuous minutes, and that second offense applies whether or not the automatic shutoff device is present.

The section is not written to exempt vehicles: it covers "any audible burglar alarm," a category that includes an automobile's built-in or aftermarket anti-theft alarm sounding in a driveway or on a street. Separately, § 144-3D bars operating a vehicle in a manner that creates a noise disturbance across a residential property boundary, and § 144-3A bars sounding a vehicle horn or signal device except as a Vehicle and Traffic Law warning signal, so a car alarm going off repeatedly or a horn being triggered as an alarm can also implicate those clauses. " Enforcement is Town-wide outside the Town's incorporated villages, which enact and enforce their own separate codes.