The latest crackdown by Oklahoma City police against street races led to the arrest of more than 150 people over a recent weekend.
Officers with the Oklahoma City Police Department arrested 114 adults and 40 minors in connection to what police described as a “street takeover” for an “illegal speed contest” near SE 66th Street and Interstate 35. OKC police Sgt. Dillon Quirk said the arrests involved about four dozen officers and spanned more than 12 hours, from about 6 p.m. Saturday, May 17, to about 6 a.m. Sunday, May 18.
Police are accusing the 154 of engaging in unlawful assembly and assembling/witnessing an illegal speed contest.
“One of them is a state statute, the other is a city ticket, so they’re misdemeanor charges,” Quirk said. “We were given information of a gathering of an illegal street takeover for that area for that timeframe, and some of it was in the private parking, but all of the arrests were effected due to activities on the public roadway there, on the city street.”
An Oklahoma City Police Department vehicle is pictured March 13, 2023, along Shartel Avenue in front of the Oklahoma County jail in Oklahoma City.
Police also impounded more than 60 vehicles and confiscated firearms and drugs at the event, Quirk said.
In addition, a spokeswoman with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said troopers were called to assist at the site, but that agency did not make any arrests.
Raul Anaya, 31, owner of Rocket Wrapz, has been accused of organizing the event but was released on a $1,000 bond from the Oklahoma County jail on Monday, May 19. According to News 9, he said he organized a family-friendly event, including food trucks and snow cones, that was meant to keep teens and young adults involved in “something positive.”
But instead, Anaya said “police treated him like a criminal.”
‘A large-scale, coordinated effort'
Quirk described the mass arrest as “a large-scale, coordinated effort.” It is the latest mass arrest in recent years targeting alleged street racing and illegal street takeovers. In June 2023, police arrested 110 people at a warehouse in the 8700 block of S. Pole Road, and nearly 70 people in August 2021 at a parking lot near 2213 W. Interstate 240 Service Road.
Since early 2020, street racers have been seen in social media videos blocking the flow of traffic to different interstate exits throughout the metro area. Shutdowns from highway street racing also have been documented in other states. Drivers have been seen doing doughnuts with their vehicles, a risky maneuver in which a driver spins the car to leave a circular skid mark.
More: OKCPD arrests more than 100 people at street racing takeover
News of the crackdown over the weekend generated controversy on social media and even spilled into meetings with local county officials in the days after the arrests.
Brigitte Biffle, chief public defender for Oklahoma County, said the sudden surge in the jail population over the weekend led to significant strain on the understaffed facility. She said there are only six detention officers at the jail on duty nights and weekends.
When a county commissioner said parents were concerned that their young adult children had still not been processed after four days, Biffle said it was “completely unacceptable” and called for more funding to increase staffing at the jail.
“There were over 100 people arrested for that. Yes, a lot of them are high school kids who are now missing (school) … and we only have a certain number of officers to book all those in,” Biffle said.
“(With) that amount of officers, that is taking days. That is completely unacceptable and that's unconstitutional, when someone is supposed to be posting your bond and you're staying in there for hours afterward. Yes, I have numerous concerns.”
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC police arrest over 150 people in alleged street racing crackdown
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