Ogden, UT Noise from Specific Sources: Car Alarm Limits (2026)

Ogden City Code Chapter 12-14, "Noise," sets the baseline sound limits enforced citywide, then carves out specific exceptions in section 12-14-7. Subsection G covers alarms: noise from an exterior alarm system on a building or a vehicle is not a violation as long as the alarm shuts off within five minutes of activation. That five-minute cap is the entire rule for car alarms in Ogden City: there is no separate car-alarm permit, registration, or decibel ceiling, and the burglary and robbery alarm licensing chapter (Title 5, Chapter 6) expressly excludes "alarm devices affixed to motor vehicles" from its definition of a regulated alarm system, so that chapter's alarm-business permitting and audible-alarm equipment rules do not reach car alarms at all.

Once a vehicle alarm runs past five minutes, it falls back under the general noise prohibitions of Chapter 12-14 and is treated the same as any other prohibited noise source. Enforcement runs through 12-14-10: a violation of the noise chapter is a class B misdemeanor punishable under Title 1, Chapter 4, and the city also treats a noise source that disturbs residents as a public nuisance subject to abatement. Any peace officer may enforce the chapter, and the mayor may authorize other city officers or employees to do so as well.

Ogden Police Department is the practical first responder to a complaint about a car alarm that will not stop. D; only the five-minute duration and the audibility across a residential property line matter.