ATLANTA — Atlanta’s mayor and interim Chief of Police say a crackdown on road racing, reckless driving and intersection takeovers is working.
Their efforts led to a dozen arrests over the weekend and town impounding 10 vehicles believed to be concerned. They have been caught on digicam in Buckhead and shutting down the downtown connector at seventeenth Avenue in midtown Atlanta.
Channel 2′s Steve Gehlbach joined town leaders at a information convention on Tuesday morning.
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Talking in entrance of a purple Dodge Challenger lacking a again wheel, which was one of many autos impounded over the weekend, Mayor Andre Dickens mentioned the message to road racers is they are going to find yourself in jail and will lose their automobile if they arrive into town.
“Going into {the summertime} they already knew, on their networks saying Atlanta’s scorching…going to lock you up. So that they tried it once more,” he mentioned.
Late Saturday evening into early Sunday, Atlanta police have been notified of a giant group of vehicles and spectators transferring from Gwinnett County to DeKalb County and into Atlanta.
The identical road racers are additionally suspected of being in South Fulton the place they have been being aggressive, taking pictures fireworks at officers and throwing issues at police vehicles.
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Atlanta police say their community of cameras and coverage of all officers, no matter rank, all swarming to an space if there’s suspected road racing exercise, led to creating a dozen arrests.
One suspect was caught after rushing away from an intersection takeover in Buckhead at Lenox Highway and Peachtree Highway. 4 others straight concerned have been arrested and despatched to jail.
5 of the spectators filming or selling the road racing have been arrested and launched. Two dad and mom have been additionally cited, in response to police, for his or her juvenile youngsters being out after curfew unsupervised.
“Investigators with the Atlanta Police Division are in a number of areas, following up on different autos,” mentioned APD’s Interim Chief Darin Schierbaum. “We intend, if we now have possible trigger, to safe arrest warrants and search warrants. We have now many hours of video we’re nonetheless combing by way of.”
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The mayor and police additionally mentioned they’re placing the remaining components of the felony justice system on discover and wish to see these concerned prosecuted absolutely.
“That is very critical. What you suppose is innocent, or doesn’t affect others, it has a grave consequence in the event you spin uncontrolled and harm somebody, or, God forbid, kill somebody, a baby, or somebody on the street,” mentioned Dickens.
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