ATLANTA — The results of a recent crackdown on street racing in metro Atlanta were discussed Wednesday during a media roundtable conversation with Atlanta Police Department's Chief of Police Darin Schierbaum.
Joining the chief were APD investigators, the Fulton County Sheriff's Office, Chamblee and College Park police, and a prosecutor from the Fulton County Solicitor General's Office. Schierbaum said street racing is down compared to recent years, but one of his department's lieutenants said the crime began making a resurgence in the metro area starting this past spring.
"We are seeing the number decrease but you see the intensity of them. You see the danger level. One is too many," Schierbaum said. "So while they're going down, they're still too dangerous."
The resurgence led to Operation Burnt Out, a detail carried out by multiple metro Atlanta law enforcement agencies on Sept. 29.
"You see how dangerous this is, not only for themselves but the citizens as well," said APD Lt. Rodney Jones, as he showed images of wrecked cars.
Some of the vehicles he showed crashed as a result of street racing in Atlanta, damaging cars of innocent drivers, properties, and police vehicles. Jones said recent street racing has also included shots being fired or deaths.
According to APD, around 44 percent of street racing arrests also involve drivers being found with firearms.
In Atlanta, Operation Burnt Out led to 39 arrests, with the youngest person arrested being 16 years old. Teenagers being involved in street racing is a sign that parents need to help play a role in prevention, Jones said.
"They need to do their job as well, they have a responsibility and those parents whose juvenile was out there, they were cited that night as well for their responsibility," he added.
According to APD, only one of the Operation Burnt Out defendants is from Atlanta, with the majority of the drivers being from other metro cities.
Deputy Chief Shelly Faulk, with the Fulton County Solicitor General's Office, said recent cases involving street racing charges have most often ended with guilty pleas for the original charges filed against defendants. She said street racing charges can lead to sentences of up to 12 months in jail, a $1,000 fine, and the driver's license being suspended. Weapons charges and drivers who run from police at street racing events can receive even longer sentences.
"We are stacking those charges and getting 36, 48 months of probation as part of their offenses as well as thousands of dollars of fines because it is never just one charge," Faulk said.
Chamblee Police Chief Michael Dieppa said the goal of the multi-department approach to targeting street racing is to protect innocent drivers around the entire metro.
"The law-abiding citizens, like all of us who want to go to a ball game, who want to go to the airport, who want to go out to dinner, don't want to encounter street racing," Dieppa said. "There is a majority of the people who want to be able to go from DeKalb to Atlanta to the airport and not worry about getting in an intersection where somebody is going to be going 118 miles per hour and hit our car and kill us or harm us."
One tool that Schierbaum believes would help in preventing future street races could come from state lawmakers during their next legislative session starting in January.
"There are some discussions around how quickly we can seize the vehicle," he said. "I know other states have the ability to have the vehicle seized much earlier in a pattern of illegal activity and I hope the general assembly would consider the ability for vehicles to be seized much quickly and be able to be forfeited because of conduct like you see today."