The Aurora City Council on Tuesday night approved new rules that crack down on disruptive car meetups and street racing, which police have said are a problem in Aurora and across the country.
The newly-approved vehicular nuisance ordinance makes it possible for police to impound vehicles, or fine the drivers or owners of vehicles, involved in stunts, street racing or unauthorized events. Fines start at $1,000 for the first offense and jump to $2,500 if the car was previously declared a nuisance.
One type of car event targeted by the new ordinance is the street sideshow, which is defined under the ordinance as an event where vehicles block a roadway so drivers can perform stunts, race or show off their vehicles.
Also banned are unlawful vehicle rallies, defined as gatherings of 10 or more people and four or more vehicles between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m. that “provokes a breach of the peace,” as well as unlawful vehicle caravans, defined as three or more vehicles coordinating and traveling together that disrupt the normal flow of traffic, break traffic laws or are a threat to public safety.
Funeral processions, permitted parades and official motorcades are not considered unlawful vehicle caravans under the new ordinance.
Aurora Police Lt. Andy Walcott told the Aurora City Council’s Committee of the Whole at a meeting on May 20 that over the past five years officers have seen more unauthorized car events like meetups and caravans, which have caused more complaints around reckless driving, loud vehicles and drag racing.
The problem, which is a national trend, is caused at least in part by people looking to make money off the social media posts from videos taken at these events, according to Walcott. He said these social media followings lead to events with upwards of 200 people with their vehicles in attendance, and participants do more risky things to get more engagement on social media.
These meetups and caravans have led to property damage and injuries, and they have sometimes involved stolen vehicles and guns, Walcott said.
Before this new ordinance was passed, he said police were not able to fully deal with the problem.
Sometimes officers would arrive to a meetup before there was a specific reason to stop the group, and then the group would flee at once to another city, according to Walcott. He said that, once in a new city, the group may again flee from that city’s police, potentially coming back to Aurora.
His presentation said that, even if some of the vehicles were stopped, the vast majority would be able to get away. Plus, participants would often wear masks, which made it hard for police to identify them, he said.
The new ordinance will allow police to give out tickets or impound vehicles on-scene as well as use video from squad cars, body cameras, license plate readers, traffic cameras and parking lot cameras to identify vehicles and then mail tickets to vehicle owners even if they live outside of the city, Walcott said.
Getting the word out about the new ordinance, he said, will hopefully discourage people from participating in these unauthorized events. The first wave of enforcement should also send a message, he said.
According to Walcott, there are many teenagers coming out to watch these events, even if they do not have cars, because they’ve seen them on social media. If police can get people to stop coming out to watch, he said, it should also discourage those at the center of organizing the events.
During public comment at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, George Gutierrez said that, while he wasn’t against the ordinance and understood why it was needed, he wanted to make sure it didn’t impact the lowrider car community in Aurora, which he is a part of, since it does events and caravans. Plus, he was worried some uninvolved people might get mixed in with unlawful caravans when officers look back at video or may get profiled when gathering after 9 p.m., he said.
Ald. Jonathan Nunez, 4th Ward, asked a similar question about gatherings at the May 20 Committee of the Whole meeting, and Walcott said a gathered group would have to be breaching the peace to be cited under the ordinance.
The ordinance was not discussed by the Aurora City Council at its meeting Tuesday after Gutierrez’s comments. It was passed as a part of the meeting’s consent agenda, which is typically used for routine or non-controversial items that are all approved with one vote instead of needing to vote on and talk about each individual item.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com