Newly published data on street takeovers and street racing in Los Angeles shows the overall number of complaints from the public declined between 2021 and 2022, and the locations most often reported appeared to shift out of West LA and the San Fernando Valley into downtown and South LA.
A report prepared for the Board of Police Commissioners shows a 36% reduction in takeover and racing reports last year, with 4,899 in 2022, down from 7,654 in 2021 (there may have been multiple reports phoned-in for the same events, however).
The top three locations with the most frequent calls from the public were in South LA, where there was also a 22% increase in the number of takeover and racing reports between 2021 and 2022, the data showed.
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The LA County Sheriff's Department released a similar report for its oversight commission that reported 169 takeovers in 2022, and said deputies had issued hundreds of citations, made more than 300 arrests, and impounded more than 200 cars in connection with takeovers and racing.
The sheriff's data, however, did not specify in which areas of the county the incidents were interrupted.
In Compton the city has been experimenting with devices designed to thwart or discourage intersection takeovers, such as the installation of so-called "Botts dots," circle-shaped humps installed on the pavement that are supposed to disrupt exhibition drivers trying to slide their cars through the street.
"It did not stop the illegal activity of takeovers," the LAPD report noted of the Compton effort. "In fact, participants simply pried off the dots from the roadway, rendering them ineffective."
STREET TAKEOVERS
LA's Department of Transportation installed a different interference device at one intersection in Sylmar that was the frequent scene of takeovers.
Hardened centerlines, which appear to be small, yellow speedbumps with plastic posts, have been fitted inside the intersection of Polk Street and Glenoaks Boulevard, such that the normal flow of traffic is not interrupted, but a car sliding around the intersection would be stopped.
"According to the LA DOT, it seems the only traffic device to deter street takeovers that can be utilized is the centerline extension with the two vertical delineators," the LAPD said in its report.
Aside from physical barriers the LAPD said it also needs to adjust its enforcement strategy, away from treating takeovers simply as a traffic problem.
The Department said it may begin to send more officers to the scenes of takeovers for crowd control, will ask the City Council for funding to install surveillance cameras at intersections and along roadways popular with racers, and may appeal to the California Legislature to increase the severity of punishment for drivers and spectators.
The Police Commission was expected to discuss the next steps at its meeting on Tuesday.
