Law enforcement and community groups in LA County dedicated to making street racing safer will partner up to educate youth, work towards creating a legal venue for races and ensure street racing citations are enforced in the newest push to curtail the oftentimes deadly displays.
The recent recommendations come after street takeovers increased in some parts of Los Angeles County during the final quarter of 2024, according to details in a report from a workgroup established to stop illegal street racing.
Representatives from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, the district attorney’s office, Los Angeles Police Department, county offices and advocacy groups, working together in a Street Takeover Reduction workgroup, developed the action plan to combat street racing in Los Angeles County.
Takeovers and races “involve vehicles driven at high speeds and/or performing stunts in reckless ways. These events attract crowds that can become unruly and engage in behavior that results in property damage, looting of local businesses, bodily injury, and/or loss of life,” according to the recently released report. During takeovers, drivers use their cars to section off an area of road for others to use for races, burnouts and doing donuts.
The workgroup released recommendations and statistics for the last quarter of 2024, which show a 64% increase in street takeovers between October and December of last year in the county’s Second District.
The Second District, which encompasses an area from the South Bay to Koreatown, saw over 100 more street takeovers in October through December 2024 compared to July through September of the same year, going from 191 to 297 reported takeovers.
The goals created by the workgroup include increasing programming to educate youth and parents on the dangers of street racing, implementing physical deterrents in roadways alongside technology to improve road safety and stop takeovers, expand law enforcement tools, community awareness of street racing and identifying legal alternatives, such as regulated areas and events for safe street racing.
Legal venues for street racing have been established elsewhere, including Street Legal Dragway, a drag strip designed for a controlled, legal street racing option in Riverside County.
The workgroup’s recommendation for legal race sites is to explore areas near Terminal Island, the site of a former drag racing venue from 1974 to 1995, or near the Henry Ford Bridge in Long Beach, as well as to explore the possibility of safe and legal pop-up events throughout the city.
A previous report, formed from LAPD data collected from 2020 to 2022, led commanders to posit that many street races and takeovers were filmed for social media and online attention.
Diminishing attention given to street takeovers in person is an aspect of the newest report from the workgroup and has been a tactic used by law enforcement previously.
“If you issue citations to the bystanders, you are taking away the crowds for these guys to show off to,” Sergeant Michael Downing of the LASD Traffic Services Detail said.
Expanding law enforcement tools under the group’s recommendations will be done by ensuring that staffing is adequate so that officers have the capacity to intervene at street takeovers and adding cameras to certain intersections.
A fact sheet from the LAPD addressing street takeovers and street racing pointed to California Vehicle Code violations for things such as reckless driving and speed contests and Los Angeles Municipal Code violations for loud and unruly gatherings and being a spectator at at speed contests and exhibition of speed as primary laws to enforce in order to control street racing and takeovers.
Takeovers and street racing have also been addressed by the Los Angeles City Council, which pushed forward with recommendations to combat the issues last year, as well as advocacy groups, including Street Racing Kills, a group that was involved in the workgroup behind the latest report.
Street Racing Kills’ founder and executive director, Lili Trujillo Puckett, has been educating youth and parents about the dangers of street racing as well as working on diversion programs for over a decade, ever since her daughter, Valentina, was killed in a street racing crash in 2013.
Trujillo Puckett is looking forward to her organization’s involvement in the workgroup. She and SRK have long been involved with the city and county. Trujillo Puckett points to Holly Mitchell, L.A. County Second District Supervisor as one of the first officials her organization worked with.
Joining the LAPD, CHP, LASD and other community groups is the key to progress in the fight against illegal street racing, according to Trujillo Puckett, who is glad she and Street Racing Kills can bring their established education plans to more people through a partnership with the county’s Department of Youth Development, part of the recommendations made by the workgroup.
“They’re going to learn what can go wrong when they do a takeover: stabbings, shootings, human trafficking, robberies, getting hit, getting hurt and then a handicap. Or the other side, what happens if you end up killing someone with your car,” Trujillo Puckett said.
She hopes the work of the Street Takeover Reduction workgroup and subsequent recommendations will have a big impact on street racing issues in L.A.
“I’m happy that the supervisors know that the need for more venues is so important, for these people to have a place to go. Everything that’s going on with law enforcement, with legislation, with education, all of us together, I do think that we’re going to see a good response. And I do think that we’re going to do a lot of life saving within Los Angeles County,” Trujillo Puckett said.