There was once a time when a sounding car alarm would be guaranteed to draw attention, whether from the owner of the car or just passers-by. However, the sound of a siren is now more likely to be considered a nuisance, or simply part of the background noise of the city. Even car owners responding to their own alarms expect to find a false alarm rather than any attempted theft.

Legislation banning car alarms in Hawaii, Israel and New York

To combat the nuisance factor, in Hawaii, a bill has recently been proposed to ban all car alarms from 1st January 2012. Not only does this prevent fitment on new vehicles, but would also require drivers to disable or remove systems on older vehicles too. Allowing a car alarm to sound would then become a violation of the law, with an increasing fine with each offence.

Meanwhile, legislation has already been approved to ban car alarms in Israel as part of environmental regulations to reduce noise pollution. Fitment of alarms will be prohibited within six months, whilst owners of older vehicles will have a further six years to comply.

City legislators in New York have also considered a ban on car alarms. In 1992 they restricted sales of alarms that sound for more than 3 minutes and there are still active campaigns to ban them entirely.

So does this mean that car alarms no longer serve any useful purpose? That they are a disturbance of the peace? Are car alarms a thing of the past?

SBD consider that removing security features from new cars is a dangerous tactic for the future. Vehicle theft levels have been declining at a much slower rate since 2009 and have begun to rise again in many regions. Removing security from new vehicles will only have the effect of making them easier targets for thieves and may attract more theft.

Despite public opinion regarding car alarms and the approach taken in treating them as a nuisance, the evidence is that thieves still consider them a deterrent. Thieves in the USA are targeting some GM models by breaking the sunroof glass – because that method of entry does not trigger the alarm system.

Similarly, SBD has heard numerous instances across Europe where thieves have avoided vehicles with car alarms – in some cases where they have attacked both cars parked either side of one with an alarm but left the protected car untouched. Car alarm warning labels or status lights have also been known to deter some thieves, even when no alarm has been fitted!

Ultimately, the added risk of being caught makes breaking into or stealing a vehicle with a car alarm more of a challenge than one without. For this reason, car alarms remain a valuable theft deterrent – especially at a time when global theft could be about to rise again. To remove the nuisance factor, car alarms need to be designed to avoid false alarms and return their status as indicators of theft rather than targets of noise pollution campaigns.

To make sure your designs are theft deterrents and not a nuisance, email SBD’s security design team on security@sbd.co.uk 

For more information on SBD’s research into Global theft statistics and vehicle crime in the 21st century, email Juanita Appleby on jappleby@sbd.co.uk