Montebello, CA Noise from Specific Sources: Car Alarm Limits (2026)

Chapter 9.28, Motor Vehicle Alarms, sets a hard time limit rather than a decibel test. Section 9.28.020 makes it unlawful for any person to cause, allow, or permit an alarm on a vehicle registered to or driven by that person to emit audible sound within the city for more than five minutes, with the clock starting at the first audible sound and running five minutes regardless of any variation or delay in the emissions. Section 9.28.030 lets any person summon city enforcement authorities when a false alarm, defined in Section 9.28.010 as an alarm response where no emergency situation exists, is clearly audible from a public right-of-way or nearby private property, and it extends enforcement to vehicles on private property when the alarm carries onto the public thoroughfare.

Section 9.28.040 sets escalating fines for excessive false alarms as infractions: not more than $100 for a first violation, not more than $200 for a second infraction within one year, and not more than $500 for every violation after the second within that same year. Section 9.28.060 authorizes the police department to deactivate a sounding alarm to abate the nuisance, and if officers cannot deactivate it, the vehicle can be removed under California Vehicle Code Section 22651.5. Section 9.28.070 separately targets chirping anti-theft alarms, prohibiting a status-indicator sound at intervals of two minutes or less, or one triggered whenever someone approaches within a set distance of the vehicle.