There’s no sound more commonly associated with urban living than the car alarm. Not surprisingly, there’s basically no sound commonly associated with urban living that’s more hated than the car alarm. And now Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) is plotting against those car alarms that go off at the wee hours but never seem to turn off.

Today Graham introduced legislation specifying that any car alarm that goes off in D.C. would have to automatically turn off within five minutes or face consequences. (In 1993 New York limited car alarms to three minutes.) What if it doesn’t? Well, the Metropolitan Police Department or Department of Public Works would be allowed to tow the car. (The five-minute rule is already on the books; Graham’s measure would merely add some teeth.)

“Too often neighbors are disturbed for no reason by the prolonged shrill of a car alarm and MPD has been unable to take action,” Graham said in a statement put out by his office. “My bill makes clear that MPD has the authority to tow a car with a blaring alarm that will not stop.”

Great, right? Sure, but the devil is in the details. According to Graham’s bill, the car could only be towed eight hours after a warning has been affixed to the vehicle. So if a car alarm goes off at 3 a.m. outside your window, you’d have to wait for the city to affix a warning sticker and then wait at least eight more hours before the thing actually gets towed. By that point, someone driven mad by the noise would probably have vandalized the car.