Fast and furious in Jacksonville: Police arrest 36 people in street racing crackdown

They drift sideways in empty parking lots at night, making huge circles as tires squeal and rubber smokes.

Other cars spin into lurid smoky burnouts and doughnuts as crowds watch and holler, recording the antics on cellphones, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said.

After about three months of investigating illegal street racing, the Sheriff's Office and Florida Highway Patrol arrested 36 people on various charges and citations that rack up to 631 misdemeanors and felonies, Assistant Chief Jaime Eason said.

That's $92,510 in traffic fines and 13 vehicles seized, along with drugs and seven guns, she said. It also means "a drastic reduction in street racing and illegal car meetup activities."

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"There are a lot of car clubs that do not do illegal activity and they enjoy meeting, looking at cars, talking about that, and that is fine," Eason said. "Unfortunately it's people like this [pointing to a poster of mugshots] who have turned it into illegal activity and made all the car clubs look bad and it's not. We will always protect that right, but once it turns illegal we will no longer tolerate it."

Lon Greenwood, head of Jacksonville's 36-year-old First Coast Car Council, said the crackdown is good news to legitimate area car clubs. He said doing burnouts and street racing are not the kind of things that the 30-plus clubs involved in his car council do.

"I am glad that police have done something to curtail it and set examples of the people who are not doing things right," Greenwood said. "... Maybe this will make people think twice when they go about what I call renegade car clubs who want to do things that destroy property and seem to harm the community."

About the street racing task force

Following multiple complaints from business owners whose parking lots were filled some nights with shredded rubber and residents who watched street racers speed past, police began looking for places where these vehicles were meeting up, Eason said.

It took some time to track down illegal racing scenes because they are "fluid events" that don't have specific spots where undercover police investigations can work, she said. They had to gather tips, work undercover and bring in other agencies like the Highway Patrol to form a plan "because they are constantly moving."

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As the task force began investigating, it found patterns that soon led to arrests. Meanwhile, police social media posts reminded drivers that some car groups were creating "dangerous situations for not only themselves but also for the citizens around them."

"They were causing dangerous activity on our highways and neighborhoods and the complaints kept coming in," Eason said.

How did the street racing arrests come to be?

Undercover deployments led to parking lots and roadways where car and motorcycle groups were gathering to do their "nefarious activity," Eason said. Then came arrests.

On May 2 police announced the arrest of four people for "actively racing on roadways in the Southside area," stating in a social media post that they were ticketed and arrested, plus had their vehicles towed and impounded.

Then a late May 7 deployment saw multiple officers and troopers witnessing a large gathering reveling in illegal driving in the parking lot at the Roses Discount Store at 9459 Lem Turner Road.

Eason said they used a police helicopter and drones to get a bird's-eye view of what was happening before moving in on the drivers and spectators in the parking lot.

"There were hundreds of people in the parking lot and we watched them; they didn't realize we were watching them," she said. "... We were able to see that they were conducting burnouts and drifts. There were a lot of spectators. A lot of cars doing the burnouts had passengers hanging out of the windows, which was obviously very, very dangerous."

Eason told officers and troopers to surround the crowds and cars and made 11 arrests, issuing more than 200 traffic citations and impounding 10 vehicles. Those included:

• One 22-year-old man in a Ford Mustang was arrested for racing on a highway, fleeing police, illegal exhaust and other charges, according to the arrest report. An officer in an unmarked police vehicle tailed the Mustang to a nearby gas station. The officer tried to stop the car, but the driver began circling the gas station at high speeds as people walked through the parking lot.

The suspect continued circling, "dangerously weaving in between the pumps, vehicles and other pedestrians," the report said. Other officers arrived and blocked the Mustang in, and the driver was arrested.

• A 19-year-old woman was charged with reckless driving and carrying a concealed weapon after several vehicles doing doughnuts and burnouts tried to flee as police arrived, her arrest report said.

In her Infiniti she tried to go around a police cruiser as it blocked an exit, and the officer had to quickly move out of the way to avoid being struck. Another officer blocked the Infiniti in, and the driver and two passengers were handcuffed. That's when a 22-caliber Glock handgun was found on the woman and her Infiniti was seized, police said.

Those arrests, especially at Lem Turner Road, netted positive feedback from residents and other car clubs who were not involved, as well as tips on where incidents were occurring, Eason said.

"That got their attention," she said of the street racers. "After that we did several other deployments, nothing that big."

What is the damage of street racing?

Police said street racers are breaking numerous state statutes, including driving any vehicle in a race, knowingly riding as a passenger in a race and reckless driving.

Vehicles owned by people charged with misdemeanors at street racing sites can be impounded for up to 30 days, with towing and daily storage fees costing the owner $1,000 before they get it back, Eason said. Those charged with felonies, such as fleeing an officer, can permanently lose their vehicles, she said.

All the videos of illegal street racing on social media could sensationalize the activity, but it also became evidence that led to some warrants, Eason said. But she noted even spectators or those shooting videos of street racing can be cited and fined $164.

"The only reason people were in that lot was for this," Eason said of the organized Lem Turner gathering. "The circle they were using for drag racing and burnouts had an audience completely around there, specifically there to watch that."

Eason said she hopes for a continued decrease in street racing as their task force continues to look for issues. Anyone who sees these types of large gatherings or other dangerous driving patterns can call the Sheriff's Office at (904) 630-0500 or 911 or email JSOCrimeTips@jaxsheriff.org.

dscanlan@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4549

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville police crack down on illegal street racing