Officer have launched dawn raids on suspected organisers of illegal car cruising events across the West Midlands today, in our latest crackdown on dangerous street races.
In the first operation of its kind, our officers targeted homes of those believed to be involved in arranging and promoting the gatherings on social media channels – seizing phones and computers in the hunt for evidence.
Five properties were searched and one man was arrested.
The 21-year-old was held on suspicion of conspiracy to commit public nuisance at an address in Bartley Green.
Two homes in Handsworth, one in Kings Norton and one in Stourbridge were also searched, with flyers and promotional material for gatherings recovered.
Today’s action was part of Operation Hercules, which was set up to tackle the menace.
Ch Supt Ian Green, in charge of Operation Hercules, said: “A lot of this is organised through social media, with accounts which have thousands of followers and are joining together to organise these illegal street races.
“This isn’t about us targeting car enthusiasts. These people are illegally racing vehicles at high speeds on our roads and putting people in danger every single time they do it. Not only themselves, but members of the public and it’s luck only we haven’t had a mass-fatality in relation to street racing.
“My concern is it’s only a matter of time until that happens so I am going to continue to enforce to make sure that the message gets home that illegal street racing will not be tolerated.”
An injunction already bans car cruising from the streets of Birmingham, while councils in the Black Country have applied for a new injunction to ban it in the Black Country area.
If granted, it would ban people from participating in, attending, promoting, organising or publicising a car cruise.