Okaloosa County, FL Noise from Specific Sources: Car Alarm Limits (2026)

Sec. 03 of the county's Land Development Code, part of the community noise abatement provisions the board adopted 'to further the protection of county inhabitants from the potential adverse health effects of community noise' (Sec. 01), lists specific acts that count as 'unreasonably loud, disturbing and unnecessary' noise. Subsection (2)(b)(i) names the sounding of any horn, bell, or other signal or warning device on any motor vehicle, motorcycle, bus or other vehicle, except as a danger or warning signal or for a duration that exceeds ten consecutive minutes.

In practice that means a genuine warning honk is always allowed, but a car alarm, horn or vehicle siren that keeps sounding past the ten-minute mark, whether from a malfunction, a security alarm loop or deliberate misuse, becomes a code violation regardless of decibel level. The same subsection also separately reaches animal noise (2)(b)(ii) and general nighttime and residential noise duration limits (2)(b)(iii)-(iv), so a vehicle alarm case is charged specifically under (2)(b)(i). Sec. 04 carries over the Sec. 07 exemption list, covering emergency signals, law enforcement activity and permitted construction, but none of those exemptions cover a routine car alarm running past ten minutes.