PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia Police Department is working on new tactics in the ongoing effort to curb illegal car meet-ups that take over city streets and disrupt traffic.
Deputy Commissioner James Kelly said the issue constantly comes up in community meetings. He said the meet-ups are a “menace to society.”
“If you watch them do it, they’re doing it to get a rise out of us — to taunt the police and to terrorize people in their cars or crossing the street,” he said. “It causes so much fear and terror amongst residents and motorists that it’s something we can’t take our foot off the gas with.”
Without getting into specifics, Kelly told reporters on Thursday that police are trying to stay one step ahead of the car groups.
“We’re doing a few things to change up. We’re going to use some new technologies. We’ve got some new tactics that we’re going to put out there to make us more effective in addressing this problem,” he said.
Police have run 66 operations so far this year responding to car meets, Kelly noted, and confiscated nearly 300 illegal ATVs and dirt bikes. For the last several weekends, Kelly said officers have been charging meet-up drivers who flee from police with misdemeanor or even felony charges.
In many cases, the people who attend these car meets are from outside the city.
“We deal with a lot of people that come in from the suburbs and do that. So when you get them tickets in the mail and your mom and dad pay your insurance, maybe the lightbulb will go off at home,” he said.