Indianapolis to add $1M in police OT to battle reckless driving
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — In the waning COVID-19 pandemic, drivers are keeping their feet to the gas pedal.
Police in central Indiana routinely see drivers going 100 mph or more. A couple weeks ago Indiana State Police stopped a driver for going 186 mph on Interstate 465.
“Our message today is clear: Knock it off. Knock it off,” said Mayor Joe Hogsett during a Thursday afternoon news conference.
The city government is using $1 million from the federal American Rescue Plan money, part of a congressional COVID-19 response effort, to pay overtime for police officers. IMPD and state police say the increased enforcement will continue until the end of summer.
During their crackdown on reckless driving since March, police say they have recovered at least 67 stolen vehicles, arrested 26 people and recovered 17 firearms along with drugs.
Indiana State Police sent a video sent to I-Team 8 of what is described as a car “spinning” on I-465 a couple weeks ago. “Spinning” happens when a group of drivers and their friends meet at a designated spot, shut down the street or interstate, and the spinning competition gets underway. The video from state police showed a competition that shut down I-465 for an hour.
More video from state police shows a spinning competition in the middle of Washington Street.
In one video, Police found themselves overwhelmed by the crowds, with a police car with activated emergency lights on in the middle of a parking lot as cars continue to smoke the tires and speed by.
Chuck DeBlaso is with the special operations bureau of Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. He said, “As our officers were responding to these complaints, we found these individuals participating would flee from us and we found the majority of the vehicles involved were stolen, so that really got our attention.”
IMPD and state police have banded together to stop “spinning” activities and reckless driving that have overwhelmed the streets. Police say these competitions are advertised on social media, and some of the drivers are making money posting the videos.
DeBlaso said, “We have also found that a lot of these vehicles engaging in this illegal activity are also involved in other criminal activity.”
“This isn’t specific to one side of town. It is a citywide problem and actually a statewide problem, and we are going to continue our efforts to put a dent in this and for it stop,” DeBlaso said.