Effective Strategies to Tackle Flash Mob Robberies, Sideshows, and Street Takeovers

Combating mass lawlessness isn't high-level policing—it's the core duty of law enforcement supporting safe and livable communities

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I loved the 2001 ‘The Fast and the Furious’ movie. My first viewing was in the theater on its first run. The plot was that the heroes were hijacking semis full of flip-phones and four-head VCRs, as thieves for the value of the cargo, via vehicle stunt choreography. I remember the moral dilemma of the scrappy underdogs from working class Los Angeles versus the Federal Bureau of Investigation undercover agents with a command post in the former house Eddie Fisher built for Elizabeth Taylor.

Car culture or criminality?

Today, 23 years later, supposedly car culture has adopted a life-imitates-art homage where street takeovers and sideshows (barely different) are exploiting the shortage of officers to cordon off territory to get a mob together to celebrate dangerous stunts and obtain the social media collateral of drifting in historic and notable places.

These aren’t the fashion offending Corvette club with their denim shorts and New Balance sneakers, or even the hazardous Mustang club with a reputation of injuries and tail-out carnage leaving cars and coffee. Instead, today’s rebels, absent a cause other than narcissism, have more in common with the flash mob (or flash rob) organized theft rings, raiding everything from convenience stores to luxury department stores.

Takeover events make exciting news headlines. Many of those involved in these sideshow activities are actively planning premeditated criminal acts, focusing on impeding law enforcement by blocking streets, fleeing and eluding, and obstructing arrests. There are always legal venues to set up a demonstration or exhibition, especially linked to historic sites. Formula One and other racing or stunt programs are great examples, but you don’t have to have their budget to ensure an insured and safe experience for participants and spectators. Today, in order to off pull these dangerous and often stupid stunts, you need organizers to have legitimate criminal minds.

"This is not just some fun thing that our kids are just messing around, doing a few donuts. People have been killed and badly injured during these street takeovers," said National Police Association spokeswoman and retired police Sergeant Betsy Smith.

"Once the police are called, you might have 20, 30, 40, 50 or more vehicles involved in the takeover and you might have one or two police vehicles who are able to respond," Smith said.

“What we are dealing with here is complete lack of respect for the law” actor Jackie Gleason in the 1977 movie Smokey and the Bandit.

Sideshows and takeovers

Sideshows are often tire smoke crowd-pleasing events. They are often power versus traction drifting events by drivers who have more money than physics knowledge.

Their errors often result in costs much greater than a pair of rear tires. The human toll is higher as spectators are either injured or killed by minute miscalculations. It also, too frequently, costs the lives of innocent bystanders who are hit and die while drivers are fleeing police. It’s not unusual for a stolen vehicle to be set on fire as part of the sideshow.

Recently in Philadelphia, in a September 24 report: “According to police, between 9:30 p.m. and 4:33 a.m., officers responded to multiple locations where crowds ranging from 50 to over 200 vehicles had gathered.” There were eight distinct gatherings documented in the article, and several were marked by attempts to run over officers or crowds vandalizing occupied police cars by standing on the vehicles crushing the windshields. Evaders did hit and runs and fled in their vehicles while leaving bystanders with disabled vehicles.

This can happen anywhere and to any jurisdiction once or twice regardless of reputation. There are plenty of cities and counties blindsided by events organized on social media where there is no reasonable expectation of vigilance to prevent these gatherings especially prior to one happening.