SAN ANTONIO – The City of San Antonio Public Safety Committee says it wants to see more data and hear from the community before it continues to explore the possibility of a stricter ordinance that might cut down on street racing and parking lot takeovers.
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus briefed the committee on the efforts so far during a Wednesday meeting. He says more than 2,000 personnel hours have been dedicated to responding to 64 locations, which has yield 105 arrests, 258 citations, 69 vehicles towed, and three weapons recovered since September 2020.
“The word on the street is that don’t go to San Antonio because you’ll lose your car if you do,” he said about the decrease in the number of calls for street racing recently.
But he’s looking toward the City of Dallas for ways to beef up enforcement. In May 2020, that city passed an ordinance that went after street racing spectators and parking lot takeover events.
Dallas Assistant Police Chief Jesse Reyes says in 7 months, officers handed out 700 spectator citations, towed 650 vehicles, and have made roughly 1,200 arrests.
“If you’re at the scene of one of these events and you’re out there cheering them, or you’re out there watching, filmmaking, whatever, you’re given the citation,” Reyes said.
The second part of the enforcement in Dallas dealt with seizing the vehicles. Reyes says that is still a work in progress, but overall, the community wanted something to be done about it, and other cities around the state and nation are taking notice.
“We’ve had individuals that have been killed as a result of these takeover events. So it’s not just a joy ride on the weekend type of event. The community has made it very clear that they want us to do something about it,” Reyes said.
Committee members asked for more data and feedback from business owners and legitimate club owners who are impacted before considering if more needs to be done in San Antonio.
McManus says there’s also a state bill, SB 1495, that would help with this enforcement by changing the charge of street racing from a misdemeanor to a state felony, increasing the jail time to up to a year and the penalty to up to $4,000. That bill is currently in committee.
PREVIOUSLY: San Antonio council members exploring ways to put the brakes on street racing