Metro Atlanta police force says they’ll ‘pull out all the stops’ to put an end to street racing

LILBURN, Ga. — For months, Channel 2 Action News has reported on street racers overtaking intersections across metro Atlanta.

Channel 2′s Michael Doudna learned that Lilburn police put a young man in handcuffs for participating in a group doing donuts in an intersection on Sunday afternoon.

It was one of multiple intersection takeovers in the metro Atlanta area, as a group of drivers held up traffic and did burnouts in the middle of intersections.

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These intersection takeovers and street racing are dangerous. A man broke his leg Sunday when a truck fleeing police ran him over at 17th Street and Northside Drive.

“We are going to pull out all the stops when it comes to try and combat it, whatever we have to do,” says Lilburn Police Capt. Scott Bennett.

Bennett walked Doudna through how police are trying to stop these drivers.

“We are part of an email intelligence network for street racing,” Bennett says.

Bennett explains that smaller departments often do not have the resources to dedicate personnel to monitor the groups responsible for these drives. So often, larger departments like the Atlanta Police Department share the information they find.

“They dedicate resources on the investigative side and resource gathering to combat this plague,” Bennett said.

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When the drivers start posting online, metro area departments get emails with the latest on where these drivers may be going.

“When we get intel in real-time, we are able to pass that information to our boots on the ground and deal with it,” Bennett said.

However, the flow of information is not always so simple. Bennett says the organizers behind these drives know they are watched, so they often try to deceive the police.

“Some spots that are uncovered are decoy spots to try and find out law enforcement,” Bennett said. “Or to see folks face to face and say the real location is here...It truly is a cat-and-mouse game to see who can outthink the others.”

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Spectators recording, posting video of street racing in Gwinnett County could possibly land in jail

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