INDIANAPOLIS — Early in the morning of Sept. 16, a crowd of people lit a circle of flames in the middle of the intersection at English Avenue and Emerson Avenue. Drivers did high-speed donuts around the flames; wheels churned out smoke as people sat in the windows.
When police tried to break up the event, a crowd threw burning baseball bats and cans of gas at them. IMPD says someone even used a fire extinguisher to create a make-shift smoke screen.
So-called "street takeovers" have become a major concern for police and lawmakers in Indianapolis. The events have been connected to pedestrian injuries, shootings, and police chases. And Indy isn't the only city dealing with the problem.
But what exactly is a "street takeover?"
New style for an old problem
Street racing is almost as old as the automobile. Motor Trend has photos of street racing in 1939. Street racing only became more popular as car engines became drastically more powerful in the 1950s.
But while street racing has been going on for almost 100 years, things changed after the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) reports driving habits changed significantly, resulting in a sharp rise in pedestrian fatalities.
It's also the period where street takeovers "took off."
Street takeovers, also known as sideshows, are different from street racing. The most obvious difference is that no one is racing. Instead, people are showing off their cars, often doing donuts and ghost riding. Ghost riding is when a diver climbs onto the hood or roof of their moving car, often to dance.
Sideshows started in Oakland, California in the 1980s but began spreading nationwide post-pandemic.
Street takeovers traditionally involve groups of cars blocking off an intersection to create space for the exhibition driving. Hundreds of people often attend the events.
Critics of takeovers say they are dangerous and criminal. Exhibition driving is inherently risky and injuries are common. They also disrupt traffic by shutting down intersections for hours at a time. The squealing tires, roaring engines, and large crowds are also very loud at events that often happen around midnight.
The response when police have tried to break events up can be dangerous — from chases to people smashing police cruisers with baseball bats. Police also say that intoxicated crowds sometimes engage in fighting and looting after takeovers end.
Focusing on the people
Lili Trujillo-Puckett founded Street Racing Kills after her 16-year-old daughter Valentina died in a street race in 2014.
"She was getting a ride home with a girlfriend. A teenage boy was driving them and a co-worker pulled even and they did a street race," Trujillo Puckett says. "He crashed, killing my daughter."
For almost a decade, Trujillo Puckett been speaking at schools and in cities across the country warning about the dangers of exhibition driving.
"It took me a while to get myself together and to read the report and realize that if he didn't race, she would have been alive," Trujillo Puckett said.
Since then she has been fighting against street racing by trying to educate people about the danger of street racing and the new threat of street takeovers. Trujillo-Puckett says they are dangerous because of the cars and the large crowds with no one in charge.
"The difference is they are organized in a way that you don't just have someone doing donuts and having fun," Trujillo Puckett said. "You also have spectators, which is what made it worse. Anybody can be there."
Trujillo Puckett says the activity in the crowds can be as dangerous as the stunts the drivers are performing.
"There's human trafficking being involved," Trujillo-Puckett said. "Many people know that it is illegal. But some people are innocent."
Trujillo Puckett also speaks to the drivers who are performing the stunts at the heart of takeovers.
"A lot of people might say 'well it's my life' especially when you are young or rebellious," Trujillo Puckett said. "We always say 'What about your parents? Your family, your friends are going to miss you.'"
Trujillo Puckett says the events come out of car culture. She says her goal isn't to end the love of cars, but to make sure people are being responsible.
"We know you love your car, you want to be cool with your car," Trujillo-Puckeett said. "We teach them how to respect the car culture, not destroy it."
Trujillo Puckett also says that it's important to have diversion programs for the people who get arrested at takeovers.
"I believe everyone deserves a second chance," she said.
Her program focuses on getting participants to talk to people impacted by car takeovers. That includes another mother who lost a child, and children who are permanently injured because of them. It also includes at least one driver who accidentally killed someone and did prison time.
"Don't just give them a ticket," Trujillo Puckett said. "They have to listen to the victim stories we have that talk about what they've been through."
RELATED: 'Dramatic results' | Other cities finding success fighting sometimes violent street takeovers
How cities stop takeovers
Other cities have tried a mix of solutions to stop street takeovers. Some involved police, some involved changing the designs of the intersections where the sideshows happen.
The trend started in California, and Oakland has been trying to shut it down for years. Los Angeles has tried a number of tactics to shut down takeovers in their streets. Closer to home, Louisville has made rules to deal with it.
Here are some of the tactics communities have tried:
- Police cameras at intersections where they happen
- Putting lane dividers in intersections to discourage exhibition driving
- Impounding cars that are involved
Los Angeles police have also suggested making it illegal to organize or attend street takeover events.
A bill to crackdown on the events here in Indiana failed in the 2024 legislative session. It would have allowed police to seize vehicles that were caught at more than one takeover. Also under the bill, if police try and pull someone over for spinning, the penalty for running from them in a vehicle and risking hurting or killing someone, would carry the same penalty as when someone runs from police and actually does cause injury or death. Critics said the bill went to far.
“This is a crime that outlaws doing donuts in a car and the loss of a vehicle, especially if it’s a vehicle that’s been borrowed from another person, a kid who borrows a vehicle from a parent or something like that, could be very detrimental,” Joel Wieneke, with the Indiana Public Defender’s Council, said.
“These are very dangerous things. They obviously create the substantial risk that we’re going to either kill somebody or seriously injure them, and we shouldn’t be doing it. Period,” State Senator Freeman, the bill's author, said.