Absolutely. Then confiscate the vehicles of the idiots who block highways and bridges
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CT police chiefs want ability to seize, sell cars involved in street takeovers
HARTFORD — New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson has a simple solution to the dangerous, unannounced, unruly masses of motor vehicle drivers and spectators that block traffic and threaten public safety: "No more cars, no more street takeovers."
That was his message to state lawmakers this week in pushing for legislation that would allow police to seize cars involved in street takeovers and sell them at auction.
"These street takeovers can happen in any town, any time of the day or night," Jacobson, speaking for the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association during a public hearing Tuesday before the legislative Public Safety & Security Committee. "They're extremely disruptive and dangerous to those on the road. These incidents have encountered mob mentality behavior from those participating in takeovers." Many of the drivers use different sets of license plates to avoid detection, he said.
While takeovers often involved hundreds of vehicles and drivers who outnumber law enforcement, Jacobson believes that seizing the vehicles, then selling them, would send an easy-to-understand consequence while giving towns and cities revenue to pay for the stepped-up enforcement.
"These investigations and the prosecution of these incidents are extremely difficult, since most, if not all of the participants are from different states and areas outside of Connecticut," Jacobson said. "The arrests we have made are from Mass, New Jersey and Connecticut. We need a penalty, which will stop these activities. There have been four shootings in New Haven related to street takeovers and we've seized three guns during arrests for street takeovers. They are setting fires in the street, throwing fireworks at police officers and jumping on police cars when the officers are outnumbered. They are taking over residential intersections as well as highway areas."
In recent months spectators were injured during a December street takeover in North Haven. Last month New Haven Police arrested a Milford woman who allegedly announced takeovers around the state on Instagram.
"When we do disband a street takeover there are hundreds of cars leaving at the same time," said Jacobson, stressing that regional efforts involved police from multiple towns and State Police, have been somewhat effective. "It takes drones, multiple officers, stop sticks, many other law enforcement efforts. We need penalties which make all these efforts worthwhile. We threw stop sticks one night and we probably stopped 50 car tires but we didn't have enough cops to make arrests, so those people drove home without tires and I think that kind of slowed them from picking New Haven as the areas because since that arrest night we haven't seen a lot of activity."
