Beverly Hills police plan no action over luxury car speedsters caught on video

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Beverly Hills police cannot arrest or cite either of the drivers of two luxury cars caught on video speeding along narrow residential streets over the weekend because an officer did not witness the incident, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

The video, which was posted online and broadcast by local media, showed a Ferrari and a Porsche blowing past at least one stop sign. The Ferrari's driver could also be heard revving the engine and later pulling into a driveway with smoke rising from the vehicle.

The video gained widespread attention after police said someone involved in the incident on Saturday claimed diplomatic immunity and that officers asked the U.S. State Department to check on the status of a person from Qatar.

"At this point, we don't believe that anyone at that location had any sort of immunity from anything," said Beverly Hills police spokesman Lieutenant Lincoln Hoshino.

A State Department official, who declined to be identified, said on Tuesday the agency had no information indicating anyone involved was entitled to diplomatic or consular immunity.

Under California law, Hoshino said, a police officer would have been required to witness the incident to make an arrest or issue a traffic citation in the case.

"Clearly the video depicts this racing or this speeding vehicle thing, which is completely egregious," Hoshino said.

"However, the officers did not observe the violation. Whether or not this guy has diplomatic immunity is completely irrelevant because the officers' actions would have been the same."

Hoshino said police could not determine from the video who was driving the cars.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Peter Cooney)