Tougher Legislation & Targeted Enforcement Promising in Combating Stunt Driving

Tougher legislation coupled with targeted enforcement is yielding promising results in the fight against deadly stunt driving incidents in San Francisco, with a Jan. 24 response by the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) resulting in 11 impounded vehicles and 10 citations for individual violators, all of whom live outside of city limits.

According to an SFPD report, the legislation—which was authored last fall by Supervisors Ahsha Safaí and Aaron Peskin along with Board President Shamann Walton and which passed unanimously—led to local laws now permitting vehicles involved in stunt driving violations in San Francisco to be impounded for up to 30 days. Concurrently, SFPD Chief Bill Scott formed a Stunt Driving Response Unit (SDRU) to expedite the police response to reported incidents.

On Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021, these new measures were put to the test—and shined brightly. Per the SFPD’s report, at 2:45 a.m. that Sunday, the SFPD deployed its SDRU following 911 reports of a stunt driving incident occurring near Dolores Street and 30th Street. Arriving on the scene in minutes, SDRU officers identified more than 100 vehicles gathered for the illegal event, blocking all lanes of traffic on Dolores Street. SDRU officers observed drivers in vehicles performing stunt driving maneuvers like “doughnuts” and “burning rubber” in the area where traffic was blocked.

As stated in its report, the SFPD ordered participants to clear the road and return to their vehicles. While most participants and spectators quickly complied and left the area, 11 vehicles remained unattended and continued to block traffic on Dolores Street between 30th and Day Streets. With the new legislation at their disposal, SDRU officers impounded the vehicles and issued citations to ten drivers from Oakland, San Leandro, Castro Valley, Petaluma, Antioch, Santa Rosa, San Mateo and Stockton. The violators were all between the ages of 18 and 23 and none were San Francisco residents.

“We will remain fierce in our work together to stop the dangerous act of sideshows in our neighborhoods,” said Board President Shamann Walton in the SFPD’s report. “We created the harshest legislation we could, without violating state law, along with vigilance and support from SFPD to keep our communities safe. As a parent and president of the Board of Supervisors, I will remain committed to ensuring our children can play safely and that our residents can move freely throughout the city without worrying about the dangers of sideshows.”

For his part, Supervisor Rafael Mandelman called sideshows “a danger to participants and passersby” and expressed gratitude “to the SFPD’s Stunt Driving Response Unit for quickly resolving the recent stunt driving incident on Dolores Street in my district before anyone was seriously injured.”

Supervisor Aaron Peskin also weighed in, saying that “with tougher consequences and targeted enforcement, San Francisco is sending a clear message to stunt drivers throughout the Bay Area that their dangerous, illegal events won’t be tolerated in our city” and credited City Hall and Chief Bill Scott for their collective efforts.

Per the SFPD report, illegal stunt driving events, or “sideshows,” escalated in occurrence throughout the Bay Area last year, defying both public safety laws and COVID-19-related public health orders. San Francisco’s highly populated streets and neighborhoods have not been spared from this dangerous trend, which has claimed multiple lives.

“Stunt driving events are a dangerous trend that poses especially grave risks to a city as densely populated as San Francisco,” said Chief Bill Scott in the SFPD report. “And the fact that most of these violators are very young, inexperienced drivers makes this trend especially worrisome. Deterring this deadly lawlessness is a high priority for all of us in the San Francisco Police Department, but I am especially thankful to Commander Dan Perea; Captains Jason Cherniss and John Jaimerena; Lieutenants Brian Devlin, Thomas Harvey, Anthony Holder, Luke Martin, Tracy McCray and Andrew Meehan; Sergeants Dan Guzman and Leroy Thomas for spearheading our Stunt Driving Response Unit. Finally, all of us in SFPD are grateful to our Board of Supervisors and Mayor Breed for their leadership in enacting tougher laws that will discourage would-be scofflaws and save lives.”

To report a stunt driving event in progress, call 911. Anyone with info on any illegal stunt driving event can contact the SFPD Tip Line at 1 (415) 575-4444 or Text a Tip to TIP411 and begin the text message with SFPD. Callers may remain anonymous.