Drones, Rubber Bumps and $5,000 Fines: Inside the Fall's War on Street Takeovers

A street takeover runs on a simple formula: an intersection, a crowd, a few cars willing to spin, and a social media post that tells everyone where to be. This fall, cities across the country tried to break every part of that formula at once. They went after the crowd with mass citations, the cars with impound lots, the intersections with hardware and the posts with new laws. Some of it worked. Some of it became a meme.

Car people have complicated feelings about all this, and they should. Takeovers are not drifting, and they are not car culture at its best. They have left behind wrecked businesses, injured spectators and worse. But they also exist in places where kids with modified cars have nowhere legal to go, and the way cities respond says a lot about how they see anyone with a loud car.

Los Angeles: drones and a 200-car impound

The biggest single hit came over Labor Day weekend. Jalopnik reported on Sept. 8 that the LAPD's new Operation Street Sweeper, with more than 150 officers, broke up a takeover at South Figueroa Street and West Alondra Boulevard after more than 700 people had gathered. The result: 69 arrests, 570 citations, 200 impounded vehicles and one vehicle fire. Of the citations, 442 were for spectating a speed contest or exhibition of speed and 128 were curfew violations for juveniles. Police also recovered seven firearms and canisters of nitrous oxide.

The method was the news. Per Jalopnik, which drew on Fox 11 Los Angeles's ride-along, the department watched groups by drone, gathered intelligence and monitored social media to spot takeovers while they were still being planned, identifying four in advance. "The cars with the hazard lights on are normally those that are involved in the street takeover, so we'll monitor them with drones right now," LAPD Deputy Chief Marc Reina told reporters, as quoted by Jalopnik.

The cost to owners was steep. CBS LA reported, via Jalopnik, that impound fees ran $215 for towing, $72.60 a day for storage and a $115 city fee, about $400 for a single day and as much as $2,500 over a 30-day hold, after which unclaimed cars can go to auction. LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said the operation was not a one-off and is pushing for legislation that would let the city crush cars used in takeovers, according to Fox 11 as cited by Jalopnik.

Compton: make the intersection hurt

Compton went after the pavement. Jalopnik reported on Oct. 8, citing NBC Los Angeles, that the city has put raised rubber bumps in 22 intersections, more than 176 of them in total, placed so normal turning traffic does not touch them but anyone spinning donuts will. Jack Gong of Compton Public Works Engineering explained the layout to NBC. The Los Angeles County Sheriff reported a 45 percent drop in takeovers in Compton since installations began last year, and the city plans to do 23 more intersections, Jalopnik said.

From an engineering view, it is smart. A takeover needs a wide open box of asphalt. Put obstacles in the box and you make every donut a risk to the car's suspension and alignment, without changing anything for drivers using the road as intended.

Stockton: congratulations, you built a skidpad

Stockton tried a different shape and got a different result. Jalopnik and The Drive both reported on Oct. 8 and 9, citing CBS News Sacramento, that North Stockton placed a circle of yellow barriers, similar to concrete parking blocks, in the middle of the intersection at Estate and Otto, a known sideshow spot. CBS set up a camera to see if it worked, and within days caught a flat black E36 BMW holding a smooth slide all the way around the new circle.

As The Drive's Andrew P. Collins put it, the city inadvertently built a mini drift course. Jalopnik's Chris Tsui called it a perfect skidpad. City councilwoman Michele Padilla, who worked to get the barriers installed, told CBS more are coming to other Stockton intersections, though she could not give a cost when asked, according to Jalopnik.

It is funny, and both outlets were clear they were not cheering for the BMW. But the contrast with Compton is the lesson. A circle in the middle of an intersection is a pylon. Obstacles at the edges are a deterrent. Anyone who has ever set up a drift course could have told the city which was which.

Montgomery County: go after the promoters

On the East Coast, Maryland's Montgomery County went after the organizing side. The MoCo Show reported that on Oct. 20 the county council approved Bill 27-26, sponsored by Councilmember Andrew Friedson, which prohibits coordinating, promoting or knowingly facilitating street takeovers. It sets fines of up to $5,000, five times the standard $1,000 maximum for a Class A violation under county law, and gives county police authority to seize and tow vehicles involved.

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Residents deserve to feel safe on our roads and in their neighborhoods.

Acting Police Chief Darren Francke said takeovers there have involved stolen vehicles, assaults and property damage, per The MoCo Show. Targeting the people who post the meet locations is a direct hit on how takeovers actually happen: they live or die on a social media post.

What is missing from all of it

Every one of these responses is about making takeovers harder. None of them is about giving the people who show up somewhere else to go. Jalopnik made the point after the LA bust, noting that many of the people cited were juveniles out past curfew and that they might need more of the "third spaces" everyone talks about. It also noted takeovers over the same holiday weekend in Milwaukee, Chicago, Greenville County and Charleston in South Carolina, and St. Louis.

The car world has seen this play out before with drifting. Parking lot sessions and street sliding turned into grassroots drift days, skid pads and pro series when people built legal places to do it. Takeovers are not the same crowd, and a lot of what happens at them has nothing to do with driving. But the lesson holds. A city can impound, ticket and bump its way to quieter intersections. It cannot make a generation of kids with cars stop wanting a place to use them.