My name is Aaron Naparstek. I am a project coordinator at Transportation Alternatives and co-author of the report, Alarmingly Useless.

Audible car alarms simply do not work in the dense urban environs of New York City. All of the credible, independent research shows this to be true. The only people who can show us data that says otherwise, are the people who are making hundreds of millions of dollars by putting products called Viper, Cobra, and Hellfire on our neighborhood streets. In 1992, the multimillionaire founder of Directed Electronics flew in from suburban California to testify in this very chamber. Darrell Issa, who is now a Republican Congressman, admitted under questioning that audible alarms only work "in areas where the sound causes the dispatch of the police or attracts the owner's attention." When was the last time you called the police because of a car alarm? In New York City we know that 99% of all audible alarms are false. We found that only 5% of New Yorkers have ever responded to an audible alarm by taking some action against a possible theft. Meanwhile, 60% of New Yorkers have called the police or taken action against the noise created by an audible alarm. For the majority of us, the car alarms themselves are a much more pressing and time-consuming crime problem than the thieves they are meant to deter.

Car alarms impose a "Noise Tax" on every New York City resident. The type of noise produced by audible alarms is linked to costly public health problems, lost productivity, decreased property value, and diminished quality-of-life. The average New York City resident pays a car alarm Noise Tax of between $100 and $120 per year. Much has been made of the fact that some insurance companies give a discount to car owners who install audible alarms (and since car alarms aren't effective in deterring theft, this is arguably the only real benefit they provide). Automobile insurance, as we all know, is ridiculously expensive in New York City, averaging about $1,400 per year. The car alarm discount is miniscule. It typically adds up to about $18 per year. This means that all 9 million New Yorkers pay a car alarm Noise Tax, so that 2 million New York City automobile owners can receive this tiny benefit.

Banning audible car alarms is possible in 2003 because there are so many effective and affordable silent security devices on the market today. Automobile security is important. New York City does not want to go back to the grand theft auto days of the early 1990's. Fortunately, we don't have to. Brake locks, personal car alarm pagers, passive immobilizers, and global positioning systems such as Lojack are all more effective theft deterrents than audible alarms. And none of them destroy the urban environment or diminish quality of life. If audible alarms were made illegal, car theft would likely reduce even more as automobile owners would switch over to devices proven to be much more effective than alarms.

We have brought in some examples of these devices for you to see them for yourself.

We support both of the bills before City Council today. We urge you, however, to simplify this legislation and its ultimate enforcement by mandating a total ban of audible car alarms over some reasonable period of time. Here is our concern: If we only ban the sale and installation of car alarms without banning their usage, car owners may simply go to Long Island and New Jersey to get their alarms. New Yorkers will still needlessly suffer alarms and the local businesses that used to sell and install them may suffer too. Whereas, if we legislate a total ban of alarms, it will be a boon for the local installers who choose to stock up on the more effective silent alternatives, it will be beneficial to automobile owners whose property will be better protected, and for the rest of us - we'll finally stop losing sleep over this issue.