Should Tacoma crack down on spectators as street racing continues to cause problems?
Tacoma’s City Council is considering a new ordinance to crack down on spectators of street racing. On Tuesday, council members saw plenty of evidence in support of tighter rules.
Assistant police chief Ed Wade, at Tuesday’s council study session, presented a recent dashboard-camera video showing a patrol car trying to make its way through a crowd at Ninth Street and Pacific Avenue. At one point, a person can be seen doing push-ups in front of a patrol vehicle while other people gathered in the intersection to record the scene with their cell phones.
Mayor Victoria Woodards noted how she, too, found herself trapped behind an ongoing melee of drivers doing burnouts and doughnuts Sunday on South Tacoma Way in the South 38th Street area.
“There were easily 50 to 75 spectators and a ton of cars who had the streets blocked off,” Woodards said. “Nobody could go north or south, east or west.”
Wade noted that it was a challenge at times as the crowds and crime have grown to be able to pull together enough emergency response.
“We have seen a huge increase in violent crime. And I’m not saying that street racing is not a priority, but in certain cases, violent crimes ... take a priority and that’s why sometimes there is a delay in officers getting into locations,” Wade said.
To that end, a proposed ordinance from council member Sarah Rumbaugh would close a loophole in the city’s current “unlawful exhibition of speed” law to include spectators.
In March 2021, council passed an ordinance against illegal speed exhibition activities happening across the city, cracking down not just on street racing but “squealing the tires of a motor vehicle while it is stationary or in motion, rapid acceleration, rapid swerving or weaving, drifting, producing smoke from tire slippage, or leaving visible tire acceleration marks on the surface of the highway or ground,” according to the council consideration request for the new proposal.
“This ordinance did not include a prohibition of spectator attendance,” it noted.
Under the new ordinance, those in attendance at such events could face the same misdemeanor penalties as participants. The misdemeanor charge would offer penalties of up to 90 days in jail and/or $1,000 fine.
The ordinance language is modeled after similar laws in Fife and Kent.
‘SOMEONE’S GOING TO GET KILLED’
Council member Joe Bushnell, speaking in support of the proposed ordinance, said the growing frustration from his constituents in parts of South Tacoma, the South End and East Tacoma was becoming a powder keg.
“It’s about deterrence. And honestly, that deterrence is needed,” Bushnell said. “I’m concerned about the spectators and them being injured by the folks that are committing these acts. But I’m also concerned about the level of anger and frustration I’m getting from the neighborhoods. I believe that we are in a ticking time bomb. Someone is going to take the law in their own hands.”
He continued: “Someone is going to get killed over this, whether anybody’s getting hit by a car, or whether somebody is getting shot from somebody shooting out of their home to stop this. And so I want to make sure the spectators are at home or doing something else that keeps them safe.
“I’m really worried that someone’s going to get killed in Tacoma.”
Woodards, recounting her experience from the weekend, said she saw spectators jumping into cars, hanging out of windows and sunroofs, as the cars spun.
“I guess what I didn’t realize from looking at some of the videos before is knowing it’s dangerous just because of the high speed,” she said. “But the ignorance of those who are hanging out like it’s part of the attraction, (which) is how can you hang on or hang out of a car and survive?”
She feared people would be injured or killed before police could arrive.
“I was stuck there for an hour. And it happens for hours. And I’m not the only person this has happened to but eventually the police showed up in two police cars ... over the overpass at Union,” Woodards said.
A shooting investigation elsewhere in Tacoma kept more patrol officers from arriving, she noted. What happened as the scene started to break up unnerved her even more.
“Those spectators were taunting our police officers. They were waving at them trying to get them to respond. That is unacceptable,” she said, anger rising in her voice.
Her situation came after a resident stopped her in Costco earlier and described how a Saturday hours-long Eastside street -racing incident ended only after neighbors went outside “and shot guns in the air.”
CONCERNS OVER PROPOSED ORDINANCE
At least two of the council members at Tuesday’s session expressed reservations about the proposal.
Council member Keith Blocker noted that a “90-day sentence is a bit extreme.”
“I’m not sure this is the right thing, and I’m not sure if this is the right time,” Blocker said. “Thinking about how complex policing is already and some of the concerns that our officers already struggling with, and here we are about to maybe pass an ordinance that has this complex criteria.”
The council consideration request lists at least six criteria law enforcement could use in making violation determinations.
Council member Kiara Daniels expressed some doubts about its effectiveness and that she still had several questions to be answered.
“‘I’m thinking about what council member Blocker was thinking about ... how proportionality works in policing. And I want to see how many Black and brown folks were arrested or had misdemeanors or anything as a result of this as it compares to their white counterparts,” Daniels said. “And then I’d also want to know what are some other things that we can do to be effective? Because if the excitement of this is it being illegal, then I don’t know how a law or an ordinance would then make it less fun.”
With the police department’s current staffing shortage, “how do we enforce this if we still only have two officers to show up to a scene of 25 people...?” she asked.
Just four arrests (three in Tacoma, one in Fife) have been made under the current law, but that comes with a caveat. Wade explained at the session that since April 2021 there were 84 people charged with reckless driving.
“There’s a lot of alignment with unlawful exhibition of speed and reckless driving,” he said. “Officers have far more experience in utilizing reckless driving, and therefore that’s usually the charge they first go for when encountering these.”
Additional deterrents being considered include metal plates in roadways and street cameras.
A suggestion was made to invite a representative from the city of Kent, where similar action has been taken to address spectators and participants, to address questions from council members at the next study session, with the ordinance to come before council for consideration in April.
“It is not that we can’t disagree,” Woodards said. “But my goal is always to make sure everybody is heard to the point that maybe the ordinance can reflect some of everyone’s thoughts so that everybody can agree. But if we can’t get there, we won’t get there.
“But I just want an opportunity to answer everybody’s questions so that they can feel like they’re making a very informed vote,” she added.
This story was originally published March 30, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
