LAPD Chief Michel Moore Backs Legislation Aimed At Curbing Street Racing

LAPD Chief Michel Moore says he's backing efforts at the state level to crack down on street racing that would, in part, create harsher punishments for people convicted of participating in street racing and other street sideshows.

The bill, AB 74, would not only make it a crime for someone to knowingly attend a street racing or sideshow event, but would also give law enforcement the power to permanently seize a vehicle that has been deemed a "public nuisance" and either auction it off or possibly destroy it, an ability police once had but lost after a 2007 court ruling that questioned the constitutionality of these kinds of seizures.

Moore, speaking on LAist 89.3’s public affairs show AirTalk, said these high-powered vehicles tearing through the streets have resulted in loss of life, serious injuries and damage to roadways, in addition to disturbing the peace.

“Let's be clear that owning a vehicle is a privilege,” he said. “It comes with responsibilities, and people who are engaged in these types of reckless acts, endangering themselves but also the innocent motoring public and others, should suffer a real consequence — and that includes the right or the privilege to have that vehicle.”

A deadly game of cat and mouse

Moore said street racers will frequently rove from one community to the next, taking over major intersections to use for sideshows: demonstrations of vehicle stunts and speed. The LAPD has partnered with other law enforcement agencies in the region to form a street racing task force not only to disrupt these events as they’re taking place, but also to scope them out in advance.

Street racers plan these events on social media and send scouts out to locations in advance to check for a police presence, Moore said — likening it to a cat and mouse game in which officers sometimes arrive at one location only to find that the event has moved to another. So the LAPD has even taken to sending officers out by helicopter to patrol an area from the skies.

Officers have made hundreds of arrests and cited thousands of individuals connected with these events and impounded hundreds of cars, Moore said.

Generating traffic on the streets, and on social media

Individuals engaged in these activities can face felony prosecution as well as the loss of their vehicles for up to 30 days — but Moore said he doesn’t believe that’s a strong enough deterrent.

“We believe that stiffer penalties are needed. But we also know that we're not going to enforce our way out of this: we need the public's help,” he said. “We need the public's peer pressure, if you will, to ensure that they're not providing spectators, that they're not popularizing [them on] Tiktok.”

Street race organizers often post videos from the sideshows online to generate buzz, and they earn money by gaining views and likes, Moore said.

“The more outlandish the actions, the more viewers they attract,” he said. “We have reached out to Meta and other social media platforms and asked that they take this activity down. We believe that it's not just dangerous, but it's unlawful.”

Passersby get caught in the fray

To thwart law enforcement, street racing groups often try to avoid the 30-day impounding of their cars by registering those vehicles in other people’s names, and trading those vehicles amongst each other. But that means that people sometimes wrongly get their cars impounded if their names just happen to be on the vehicle registration.

Spectators and passersby have been shot at these takeovers or hit by cars that spun out of control. With the stakes so high, Moore said the consequences should be too.

Listen to the conversation