Street Takeovers Need To Stop

Towns and Cities partner to make our streets safe

If you saw them walking down the street, no one would confuse them for the Avengers They don’t have super powers or bionic suits, but they want to keep you safe. They don’t know Robert Downey, Jr. No, much simpler than that, a group of First Selectman and Mayors from the Greater New Haven have come together to make their streets safer from illegal street takeovers, something that has been plaguing municipalities for the past several years.

The task force, which includes Guilford, Hamden, New Haven, North Haven, Orange, Wallingford, West Haven and Woodbridge, is set to tackle illegal street takeovers through a concerted and regional effort. Though they seemed to have originally been confined to larger cities, they have been happening more and more throughout – in towns large and small.

What is a street takeover? The National Police Association says that “Street takeovers are self-explanatory, consisting of throngs of exposed pedestrian spectators who meet at intersections and watch reckless drivers act out in the public domain, clog city streets, rev engines, burn rubber, create clouds of smoke from spinning tires in place (everyone contaminating their lungs with each inhalation), all to put on an unauthorized, highly perilous car show of sorts.”

The one difference between that definition and what has been happening in Connecticut is the predominant use of ATVs and dirt bikes to cause this havoc. Now familiar to many folks who have witnessed one first hand or seen the news reports of them are the scenes of individuals doing wheelies through traffic, lingering in or blasting through red lights and generally making other drivers fear for their lives.

New Haven has seized a few dozen vehicles so far, according to the New Haven Independent, saying that the collected group believed that number would go “up and up” as they worked together to combat this growing threat. Recently, the City of New Haven upped the fines for offenses – to $2000 for a third-time offense, and other towns seem to want to follow suit.

New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson said at a press conference, quoted in the Independent that “the people riding these [vehicles] do not see city limits.” This is an important reminder that what happens in New Haven affects what happens in North Haven or East Haven or West Haven and beyond. The only thing that can keep people safe is when towns and cities work together to discourage this behavior and make sure that when caught, people don’t do it a second or third time. Again, this might not make them superheroes, but it makes them public servants, and really, what’s the difference?