More Charlotteans are calling 911 to report street racing and alleged “street takeovers” that wake them up throughout the night.
Street takeovers happen when dozens of drivers block off city streets to race each other and perform tricks like burnouts, that spinning trick that makes tires smoke. The takeovers aren’t unique to one neighborhood or police division. They are happening all across the city, police officials said at a news conference Monday.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police are increasing enforcement of reckless driving laws in an attempt to crackdown on the groups organizing these races, but it isn’t easy, officials said.
Police gave out 54 citations related to the races, arrested five people and towed or seized 12 vehicles as evidence this month alone, CMPD officials said.
This past weekend (Feb. 24-26), eight pre-arranged races and 13 pop-up takeovers occurred across 11 CMPD divisions, police officials said. These races involved hundreds of drivers.
“It’s a social media driven kind of phenomenon,” Maj. Dave Johnson of CMPD’s special operations bureau said. “These folks are filming themselves, posting them to social media, getting the clicks and the likes, and that’s one of the reasons we’re seeing such an increase.”
Policing those who participate in these street takeovers is particularly difficult because officers can’t quickly identify the drivers of the vehicles, Johnson said. Drivers often aren’t the owners of the vehicles, which can lack proper registration, and the plates are sometimes removed or switched with another vehicle, he said.
The drivers rarely, if ever, stop for police officers and CMPD’s pursuit policy will not allow officers to pursue them unless they committed a crime dangerous to life, Johnson said. Reckless and aggressive driving does not meet this threshold.
Police also can’t proactively monitor “hot-spot” areas for these takeovers because the locations change with each race.
These street takeovers aren’t unique to Charlotte. They are part of a nationwide trend, Johnson said. Police saw an increase in street takeovers and illegal racing during COVID-19 and the behavior hasn’t decreased since then.
As more arrests are made investigators are attempting to find the organizers of these races to “cut the head off the snake,” Johnson said. Police have learned that some of these organizers are juveniles.
Legislation ‘with teeth’
Johnson called on the General Assembly and Charlotte City Council to work towards legislation that would assist them in enforcing laws against racing and street takeovers.
“We’re looking forward to working with city council and the state legislature to draft and enact local ordinances and state statutes that hopefully will assist us and add some teeth to the enforcement resources that we already have at our disposal,” Johnson said.
Some jurisdictions in the state have strict penalties for street racing — including $1,000 fines and an automatic six month seizure of the vehicle if a driver is convicted — Johnson said he would like to see something similar in Charlotte.
“We would love for it to be as stringent as possible,” Johnson said.
