Street-racing ‘takeovers’ like the one in Tacoma Jan. 23 on the rise across the region
The calls come in with few details.
Usually someone complains about cars doing doughnuts on a city street or parking lot. Sometimes they mention a crowd gathering.
Most participants and onlookers scatter by the time Pierce County law enforcement officers get on scene, but some stay. Spectators have thrown glass bottles or blocked the roadway to allow their friends to escape.
Police say street-racing “takeovers” are on the rise, in part thanks to social media helping to spread the word about when and where they’ll be. Participants use their cars to block off streets or intersections to stage races or spin in circles near the Tacoma Mall, in parking lots on South 23rd Street, on Lincoln Avenue and Dock Street at Thea Foss Park.
In Tacoma, 20 street-racing complaints were called in during January 2020. In January 2021, there have been 65 street-racing complaints, according to the Police Department.
The “takeovers” have led to spectators being injured in Seattle and two women killed after being struck at a November car meetup in Auburn. A Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier was charged with vehicular homicide in connection with the Auburn case.
“This is a well-organized group of — I’m sorry, well-organized group of thugs,” Nancy Lulay, who has lived in downtown Tacoma for seven years, told The News Tribune on Wednesday. “There’s multiple ways of holding a community hostage, and one of them is what they’re doing. They have no respect for any law. They have no respect for the police. They have no respect for the neighbors. I don’t feel safe going out at night anymore when they’re gathering.”
The takeovers have garnered recent attention since Tacoma police responded Jan. 23 to an incident with about 100 people blocking off the busy intersection of South 9th Street and Pacific Avenue while a few cars did doughnuts.
While trying to move the group along, officer Khanh Phan revved the engine of his patrol SUV before plowing forward, running over at least one person and injuring at least two. Police later said Phan, who has been with the department nearly 30 years, feared for his safety because people were banging on his patrol car and yelling.
The incident sparked a protest the following night that drew hundreds who marched through the streets. Some broke more than 20 windows, including at the County-City Building and South Sound 911. Two armed people wearing militant gear were arrested trying to gain access to a rooftop above the demonstration.
Phan has been placed on paid administrative leave while the Pierce County Force Investigation Team investigates.
No protocols for street-racing response
Street-racing statistics are hard to come by in Pierce County since no agency has a specific code to track the activity. The 911 calls come in as reckless driving, a general disturbance or vehicles blocking the roadway.
There are no specific protocols or policies in place telling officers how to handle the incidents.
When street-racing events occur without warning, only one or two patrol cars might be available to respond. If police know ahead of time about a planned takeover, they can shift resources and stage about 30 officers in the area to break it up.
“Our biggest priority is to end the disturbance. If it’s a street race, we want to stop that activity and encourage the people watching to leave,” said Pierce County sheriff’s Sgt. Darren Moss. “The more people that are out there, the more likely that someone can get hurt or property will get damaged. We want to make sure the roads are safe.”
Tacoma and Lakewood police echoed that sentiment, saying it’s most important to stop the activity. Enforcement is secondary.
“The first priority is to stop any activity that presents an imminent risk to the public,” said Tacoma police spokeswoman Wendy Haddow. “The second priority is to conduct enforcement as safety allows.”
The City of Puyallup recently enacted an ordinance called Stay Out of Areas of Racing, making it illegal to participate in or watch street racing. Signs were posted on Levee Road, Industrial Way and Valley Avenue because that’s where most of the street racing activity was taking place.
Sumner has had a similar ordinance and no-racing zones in the city’s industrial area since 2009, said spokeswoman Carmen Palmer.
Most police dole out reckless driving citations for those caught participating in these events, which is a gross misdemeanor subject to a $5,000 fine.
Tacoma police have issued about 500 tickets for reckless driving in the last two years, though not all were for street racing, according to the department.
‘It’s dangerous’
Some residents say it’s not enough and they want to see law enforcement crack down on the car groups organizing the events.
Judy Brandon, who lives in a high rise in downtown Tacoma, told The News Tribune in a phone call Thursday that weekend nights are the worst because drivers race along Interstate 5, Dock Street and Pacific Avenue.
“They just come and go for hours,” said Brandon, 67. “... I really think it’s dangerous.”
She’d like officers to patrol the areas most frequented by street racers and thinks the Police Department needs to do more to address the problem.
“Otherwise, why would 100 people feel free to gather downtown on a Saturday night if they thought that the cops might show up?” Brandon said. “It was pretty clear that they feel like they can do whatever they want with their cars.”
Authorities say street racers in Pierce County have been escalating their behavior by failing to disperse when police show up. They allegedly threw glass bottles at deputies responding to cars doing burnouts Dec. 26 at South 12th Street and South Ainsworth Avenue and fired off guns last Saturday after relocating from downtown Tacoma to 96th Street South and Steele Street South.
Hours after the Tacoma officer drove through a crowd, the group moved to a different part of the city and did another takeover that required sheriff’s deputies and Lakewood police to stop it.
One group posted on social media about a takeover planned Saturday (Jan. 30) on Tacoma Mall Boulevard. When a resident put the information in an online community group and reported it to police, the car group posted again saying, “We still throwin a meet, TPD ain’t doing (expletive).”
Challenges with making arrests
Police say there’s only so much they can do. Posting about meetups on social media isn’t a crime, and there are challenges with making arrests or giving citations since officers have to see somebody breaking the law.
“Just because 200 people were racing doesn’t mean we can issue 200 citations,” Moss said. “We have to observe the criminal activity.”
It’s also not a slam-dunk when people send photographs or cell phone video of the involved cars and their license plates because authorities have to be able to prove who was driving the vehicle.
Viewpoints vary on what the should be done to address the fallout of the incident on Jan. 23.
Sam Cabral, president of the Florida-based International Union of Police Associations, issued a statement Thursday saying, “... the conversation should be about illegal activity in your downtown area, prompting citizens to call and request, or demand the police response. It should be about the attack by this unruly mob on one of your officers. It should center on preventing and prosecuting criminal activity in your city.”
That came on the heels of a joint City Council statement where members said they were concerned about Phan’s actions, as well as “concerned by what we have heard about street racing, destruction of public property, and the businesses that experienced property damage. “
Although law enforcement agencies have not offered a specific plan on how to halt street-racing takeovers, Moss said the Sheriff’s Department has had some success speaking with organizers and educating them on the dangers to the public as well as their own liability if someone gets hurt.
This month, Auburn started overnight shutdowns of streets known to attract racing. Kent last year started holding emphasis patrols targeting street racers, which resulted in 407 traffic stops, 42 arrests and 148 tickets in July and August, according to the Police Department.
This story was originally published January 30, 2021 at 5:15 AM.
