Newark, OH Noise from Specific Sources: Car Alarm Limits (2026)

Car alarms in the City of Newark, Ohio fall under the emergency signaling devices paragraph of the Noise Control Ordinance, Section 634.04(a)(8) of the Newark Code of Ordinances. Subparagraph B prohibits any person from sounding or permitting the sounding of any exterior burglar or fire alarm or any motor vehicle burglar alarm, unless the alarm is automatically terminated within two minutes of activation, or within a reasonable time after notification of activation.

Two distinct paths satisfy the rule. The first is a system that shuts itself off, automatically, within two minutes. The second is a reasonable time after notification of activation, which gives an owner or the owner's agent a window to silence an alarm that has not stopped on its own. The text does not define a reasonable time with a number, and the duty falls on the person who sounds or permits the sounding, which reaches an owner who leaves a faulty alarm running.

Subparagraph C is a neighboring rule for the same vehicles: no person may sound any horn or other auditory signaling device on or in any motor vehicle on any public right of way or public space, except as a warning of danger. Leaning on a horn for a lock chirp, a greeting or a disagreement on a Newark street is not a warning of danger.

Under Section 634.02, an alarm that keeps ringing can also be a noise disturbance, meaning sound that annoys or disturbs a reasonable person of normal sensitivities. Section 634.06(b)(1) takes activities covered by (a)(8) out of the Section 634.05 decibel table, so the two-minute shutoff is the working standard. The paragraph was last amended by Ord. 22-43, passed 11-21-22.