Lafayette, IN Noise from Specific Sources: Car Alarm Limits (2026)

Section 11.02.080, in Chapter 11.02's Noise Control provisions, bars sounding any horn, klaxon, siren or other warning signal on any automobile, truck, motorcycle or other vehicle on any public place in the city, except as a necessary warning of danger to persons and property. The section traces to the city's 1971 Code § 18-2 and predates the chapter's 1982 quantitative-limits overhaul, but it remains in force as the specific rule governing vehicle warning devices, including alarm systems whose siren or horn sounds without a genuine danger to warn against.

Because the exception is narrow, limited to a necessary warning of danger, a car alarm that repeatedly triggers from a sensitivity malfunction rather than an actual break-in attempt or hazard falls outside the exception and can support a citation once it disturbs the surrounding area. The rule sits alongside § 11.02.090's ban on loud, unnecessary use of radios, phonographs and loudspeakers and § 11.02.100's ban on towing noisy cans behind a vehicle, all enforced by the Lafayette Police Department as part of the same 1971-era noise code retained within the 1982 chapter.

Unlike the metered vehicle-noise limits in § 11.02.040, § 11.02.080 requires no decibel reading: an officer's observation that a horn, siren or alarm sounded without a genuine danger present is enough to support enforcement.