Thomas Breen file photo
A dozen dirt bikes and ATVs seized by city police in May 2020.
Police arrested a 21-year-old who participated in a Long Wharf street takeover — just days after Mayor Justin Elicker testified before the state legislature in support of a bill that would expand penalties for street racing.
The New Haven Police Department (NHPD) announced that arrest in a press release posted on X on Sunday.
According to police, two officers were patrolling the area of East Street and Water Street at 12:17 a.m. Sunday when they saw a street takeover: Around 50 cars were “blocking the intersection, spectating, spinning their tires in place and generally driving recklessly.” The release states that officers saw cars leaving the Sports Haven parking lot at high speeds in different directions.
One driver, in a red Honda Accord, jumped the curb in an attempt to flee police but wound up stuck, which “heavily damaged” his vehicle. Police arrested the 21-year-old driver and New Haven resident and charged him with being a racing participant. He was issued a misdemeanor summons and his car was towed.
Less than 48 hours before, on Friday, Elicker testified before the Connecticut General Assembly Judiciary Committee in “strong support” of Senate Bill No. 1284.
The raised bill, co-sponsored by Republican state lawmakers Paul Cicarella of North Haven and Craig Fishbein of Wallingford, would allow for Connecticut municipalities to create an ordinance that would prohibit street takeovers, to issue fines to anyone in violation of that ordinance, and to impound vehicles of operators who haven’t paid those fines. If drivers are convicted, the bill also offers guidelines that would allow the state to revoke or suspend an operator’s license.
Penalty fines are listed as up to $1,000 for a first violation, up to $1,500 for a second offense, and up to $2,000 for a third and subsequent violations.
The bill would also allow for the seizure and impoundment of ATVs, dirt bikes, mini-motorcycles, and snowmobiles used in illegal street takeovers. Previously, municipalities had to sell seized vehicles at public auctions, which Elicker said put them back on the streets. There are also new fines: up to $1,000 for a first violation, up to $1,500 for a second offense, and up to $2,000 for a third and subsequent violations. That’s up from the current state-allowed maximum fine of $250.
Elicker submitted written testimony in support of the bill, and also spoke via videoconference online at Friday’s hearing. In his testimony, Elicker expressed the need for a “strong, state-wide continued commitment” to provide municipalities and cities across the state with more tools to combat “this persistent, growing, and shared challenge” of street takeovers.
“Street takeovers and dirt bike riding and ATV riding are extremely dangerous,” he said, not only to participants themselves but to law enforcement and bystanders. While he expressed that New Haven has “done a lot and what we can,” the city needs more tools.
Elicker did suggest adding license suspension penalties to cover illegal dirt bike riding and ATVs as well, rather than just street takeovers.
New Haven State Sen. Gary Winfield, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, asked committee members whether they had comments or questions to ask Elicker. “I don’t see any, probably because we’ve heard this bill many times and I think many of us would actually like to finish it this time,” he said.
In a separate phone call with the Independent, Winfield said that when efforts to pass a bill like this one first began, there weren’t as many street takeovers. Legislators had to have conversations about when and the degree to which to penalize people participating in or observing street takeovers.
“We’ve had conversations about that, we’ve worked on it, and I think given how these street takeovers have developed, given the work that’s been put in, I do believe that we can get it done in the right way this session,” Winfield said.
Attorney General William Tong and Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Commissioner Ronnell Higgins joined Elicker in testifying in support of the bill Friday. Higgins wrote that state police have noticed an increase in street takeovers, which “disrupt local communities, overwhelm law enforcement resources, and pose grave dangers to public safety.”
Meanwhile, Deborah Del Prete Sullivan, director of the state Office of Chief Public Defender, submitted testimony opposing one specific part of the bill: a note that qualifies “people who gather with the intent to observe and actually observe the street takeover” as subject to penalty.
“Section 4 would subject anyone present at such an event, to having their operator’s license or privilege permanently revoked for a third violation,” Del Prete Sullivan argued in her written testimony. “By doing so, everyone, including simply spectators and/or spectators who perhaps may share information in anyway, including social media, will be treated as harshly as a person who owns a motor vehicle used in the takeover or who acts as a ‘starter, timekeeper or judge’, places a ‘wager’ on it, or ‘knowingly incite or recruits’ to advance the street takeover.”
Because the bill mandates that an operator’s license is revoked after a third violation, and the increased penalty would qualify those under 18, and that even those watching street takeovers would be subject, Del Prete Sullivan wrote that the penalty is “extremely punitive especially for youth who lack the maturity to appreciate their actions or who may be in a place with no way to remove themselves due to where they reside.”
She noted that the General Assembly has recognized brain development science when addressing lengthy sentences for people under 18 and some under 21 who have committed serious crimes. “The permanent revocation, for life, of a person’s license, with no possibility of obtaining such, will carry with it severe collateral consequences which can impede a person from obtaining, among other things, employment, education, and training,” she wrote.
She closed her office’s testimony by requesting that legislators remove the bill’s language about “the permanent revocation of an operator’s license” and narrow the application of ordinances that would allow for the penalization of those who gather to watch street takeovers.
“I take her concern very seriously,” Winfield said when asked about Del Prete Sullivan’s testimony. “I work on most bills very closely with her office, so as we move forward with this bill, we will be in conversation with them about how to address those concerns. I think that if we put our heads together … we are really good at coming up with solutions for the problems that we can identify.”