PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia police say they seized 23 off-road vehicles illegally driving on city streets in the last two days.
Police Spokesman Sgt. Eric Gripp says the latest seizures bring the number of ATVs and dirt bikes police have confiscated this year to 149 — 60 of which were in the last month alone. There were also two arrests — one person on a stolen ATV, and another wanted for a shooting.
Gripp says he hopes the riders are getting the message.
“It’s not harmless. It’s not a joke. It’s not a game. People are getting hurt. Citizens are getting tired of it. Law enforcement is getting tired of it,” he said.
ATVs on city streets have long been a nuisance, but an incident caught on video this week, in which a motorcyclist, who was riding through Center City with a large group of people on dirt bikes and ATVs, stomped out the back window of a car where children were sitting and waved a gun in their mother’s face, brought a new urgency to the problem.
Police have been constrained by the danger of chasing the ATV drivers, but Gripp says that doesn’t mean they’ve given up.
“We need to keep evolving in our techniques and in our tactics in capturing the individuals that are using these vehicles in a dangerous fashion.”
In that spirit, Councilman Kenyatta Johnson is convening a task force later this month, on Oct. 16, to develop new strategies for keeping vehicles off the road.
“We want to get everyone around a table and look at what are we doing? What aren’t we doing?” Kenyatta said.
Gripp declined to be specific about how police are seizing the vehicles so as not to tip off the riders.
Johnson suggests they explore drones for enforcement and permanent seizing of the vehicles rather than give owners the chance to reclaim them.