City Could Be the First to Outlaw Car Alarms: Bill's proponents call devices useless
West Side Spirit
By Charlotte Eichna

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"Capillaries in the extremities constrict and blood surges to the brain, the liver secretes glucose for energy, and the adrenal gland pumps hormones into the bloodstream, boosting.stress levels.”

The body's reaction to hypothermia or starvation? Nope. It's a physiological process that New Yorkers seemingly undergo every day: the fight-or-flight response to loud noise. And car alarms, according to Transportation Alternatives, are the number one offender.

The nonprofit group, an advocate for "environmentally sensible transportation," has been a vocal supporter of banning the audible anti-theft devices, a cause that has also been taken up by East Side Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz and Councilman John C. Liu of Queens, among others.

Car alarm proponents say in response that the products provide an important safety benefit and that "government would be overstepping bounds by banning them. False alarms can be avoided most of the time if the devices are installed properly, they say.
The Bills

"I get calls often at 2 in the morning from my constituents on a regular basis in utter frustration on this issue," Eva Moskowitz said.

If the devices did their job and deterred theft, she continued, they might be justified. But Moskowitz said they don’t, adding that her own alarm-protected car was stolen from an Upper East Side street about 10 years ago.

"New Yorkers have a right to sleep and have peace of mind," she said, "and these car alarms don't even have a value added."

Abby Wilson, Moskowitz’s press secretary, said it has been estimated that 90 percent of car alarms are false alarms.

The story is the same on the West Side.

Joshua Bocian, director of constituent affairs for Councilwoman Gale Brewer, reported that the office get[s] many calls, emails, letters and other complaints about car alarms.

"It certainly is an issue with our district," said Bocian, who added that "quite a significant number of constituents" expressed "overwhelming support" for banning the devices.

Citywide, claims Transportation Alternatives, in 2001 fully 83 percent of the 97,000 calls received at the Police Department's Quality of Life Hotline were for noise complaints, and car alarms were "consistently near the top of the list." The group did its own survey of more than 800 New Yorkers and reported that 91 percent of respondents said car alarm noise diminished their quality of life. Transportation Alternatives even developed a "car alarm noise model," which calculates a $100 to $120 "noise tax" that each of us pays each year due to work disturbances, interrupted sleep and overall lost productivity.

City code currently fines drivers if their alarms go off for longer than three minutes, but Moskowitz's bill, Intro 115, would prohibit car owners from having "an audible burglar alarm or an audible status indicator" in operation on their vehicle. The NYPD, if it "took all reasonable and necessary steps to disconnect such alarm or such audible status indicator without success," could arrange for the offending vehicle to be towed. Fines would start at between $175 and $700 for the first offense.

Intro 115 would also outlaw the sale and installation of audible car alarms. Fines for selling would start at between $500 and $1,000, and fines for installing would start at between $100 and $250.

Liu's bill, Intro 81, would prohibit only the sale and installation of alarms, according to the councilman's chief of staff, Phil Horn.

"We have sort of reached an agreement on sort of merging them and modifying them," Moskowitz said of the two bills. "I ould expect in early June that this would have a second hearing."

Moskowitz added that with "tremendous support" among her colleagues, it's likely that the ban could win passage by the end of the year.

If the City Council passes a bill on car alarms, it would go to the mayor for his signature.

"Obviously, the mayor finds loud and egregious noise to be a major offense and affront that people should not have to live with," said Chris Coffey, a Spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "But we do not comment on any pending legislation.”
If Bloomberg signs the bill, it would be the nation's first law against car alarms, according to a December 2003 editorial in the New York Times that backed such legislation.

Do They Work?

In its report "Alarmingly Useless: The Case for Banning Car Alarms in New York City," Transportation Alternatives claims that car alarms do not prevent auto theft. The document cites a 1997 report conducted by the Highway Loss Data Institute that found "no overall reduction in theft losses for vehicles with such alarms." It was based on insurance claims data from 73 million vehicles.

The most effective devices, according to the HLDI report, were those that immobilize a vehicle when theft is attempted.

But Russ Rader, a spokesman for HLDI, said that although Transportation Alternatives cited the report properly, his organization overstated conclusions.

"We concluded that we should not have phrased it as categorically as we did," said Rader. "The reality is that we have never done a study that categorically shows that car alarms don't work."

Although HLDI had no further car alarm study planned, Rader said, "We can surmise that they probably don't have much effect."

Not surprisingly, car alarm manufacturers and industry groups disagree with that evaluation. Although Directed Electronics, which manufactures the Viper alarm as well as a number of other audible devices, had no statistics to offer about reduced auto theft rates, Corporate Communications Manager Ken Gammage said the significant reduction in auto theft rates over the past 10 to 15 years pointed to the likelihood that car alarms work.

In further support of his company's products, Gammage said the National Insurance Crime Bureau recommends audible car alarms as a second layer of protection against auto theft -- in addition to non-audible devices, including brake locks and theft deterrent decals.

Councilwoman Moskowitz says the NYPD attributes the sharp decline in auto theft rates in the past decade to a crackdown on "chop shops," which break down stolen cars and sell them for parts. Gammage foresaw a rise in auto theft if the bill is passed.

"If car thieves receive the announcement that car alarms are banned," he argued, "then it's pretty much open season."

K.C. Bean, general counsel for Directed Electronics, predicted car owners will simply go outside the city to get alarms installed and local installation businesses will suffer.
Douglas Johnson, senior director for technology policy for the Consumer Electronics Association, also had no statistics about car alarms' efficacy, but he said it was impossible to know how many criminals run away after they set off a device.

"It's an alarm to alert you to something that’s going on. It raises your level of awareness. It’s a deterrent," said Johnson, who testified against the car alarm ban at a City Council hearing last June.

Johnson also said consumers purchase car alarms for features other than auto security. According to a survey conducted by his association, 9 in 10 buyers purchase audible car alarms for personal safety reasons, like the panic button. An audible alarm, the senior director said, draws attention that silent alarms and other anti-theft devices can't.

Agreeing with Bean from Directed Electronics, Johnson said the bill would be harmful to local alarm installation businesses and cause the city to lose tax revenue. And consumers, he added, would suffer from a loss of choice.

"It's a very bad precedent for a government to decide to ban the sale of a legal product," said the senior director, "especially those that provide safety and security".
The problem with car alarms, according to Johnson, is that they are not always installed by professionals who have passed the Consumer Electronics Association's mobile electronics certification program. Amateur installers usually don't calibrate the alarm properly, and vibrations or minor disturbances will set it off, resulting in noise complaints, he said.

Rick Matheis, executive director for the Mobile Enhancement Retailers Association, also said faulty sensors and poor installation - problems that are easily fixed without sweeping legislation - are responsible for nearly all false alarms.

Even Aaron Friedman, a project manager at Transportation Alternatives and the founder of the anti-car alarm group Silent Majority, conceded that poorly calibrated alarms are partly to blame for the city's noise problem. But Friedman doubted that further certification of installers would improve the situation. To properly install an alarm, he said, takes four to five hours' work. And with alarms selling for only $200 to $250, the incentive is to spend less time on installation, increasing the likelihood of an overly s sensitive alarm.

Disarming Alarms

Then there's the issue of properly de-installing the alarms, should the bill pass.
Transportation Alternatives and Eva Moskowitz's office claim there are a number of car alarm installation companies in New York City that have pledged to disable aftermarket alarms, or alarms installed by the owner or a dealer, free of charge. But factory-installed alarms that come with cars might pose more of a problem, the bill's opponents say. No one has offered to disarm that type of alarm for free.

Drew Robertson, director of the Center for Automotive Security Innovation, contacted 60 installers and reported that 50 of them were happy to disarm after-market alarms for free because it would being in a stream of potential customers. His organization is trying to spread the use throughout North America of anti-theft immobilizer devices, which work by cutting the engine's supply of electricity or fuel. The immobilizers, standard in many new cars, are mandatory in the European Union and South Africa, as well as in parts of Australia, where they were fled to a 50 percent drop in auto theft, Robertson said.

(Car owners can visit the Center for Automotive Security Innovation's Web site, http://casi.ftsc.us/, to find out where to get alarms disarmed. The phone number is 981-2529 ext. 13.)

Transportation Alternatives also says disarming after-market alarms is so simple that most owners could do it. It's the factory-installed alarms that pose a problem, according to Rick Matheis of the Mobile Enhancement Retailers Association, because many can’t be disabled without also cutting the horn. "It's an automatic function," he said.

"Although Transportation Alternatives says factory-installed alarms are usually more difficult, "most, if not all factory-installed alarms can be disabled without affecting the horn," Aaron Friedman maintained. The group visited 14 city car dealerships, "representing nearly every major auto manufacturer," and found that only two brands -- Mitsubishi and Volvo -- would require something more invasive, like cutting a wire, that a dealer would have to perform.

Alarm Alternatives

If you decide to give your car alarm the boot, Transportation Alternatives lists other theft-deterrent devices with pricing similar to audible car alarms ($229):

• Silent car alarm with a pager, $289.
• Silent immobilizer, $ 195.
• Pager to replace an existing siren, $175.

New York is one of 12 states that require insurers to give car owners premium discounts for anti-theft devices, according to the Insurance Information Institute. The state Insurance Department’s Web site says several anti-theft devices qualify for such reductions.

“Eligible devices are generally alarm systems or permanently installed devices that prevent a car from being started,” the Web site say. “In addition, discounts are available for cars equipped with certain electronic-tracking devices, or in which the window glass… has been etched with the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) or other identifying symbol qualifying under the law.”

Your local precinct can also enroll you in the Combat Auto Theft Program, for which some insurers will also give a discount. In the CAT Program, vehicles displaying an official decal may be stopped, without other cause, by police if operated between 1 and 5 A.M., the prime vehicle theft period.

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