Bedford police, HEB schools cracking down on meet-ups, noisy cars after complaints
Police and Hurst-Euless-Bedford school officials are working on a plan to stop unauthorized meet-ups after a car club used the Pennington Field parking lot on April 8 for an event that drove residents to complain about the noise.
According to police, a “regional car club” met in the parking lot at around 9 p.m. Officers responded and told those at the gathering that they needed to leave and to “reduce” the noise.
The news release also stated that police stopped multiple vehicles leaving the event and issued citations.
Bedford police declined to be interviewed for the story, but said in the news release they are working on a plan to address unpermitted meet-up events with additional staffing and “a zero tolerance” approach to noise-related vehicle activity.
In an email to the Star-Telegram, police said they are meeting with “regional car clubs” to walk them through the process of getting permits and notifying property owners about events.
“The City recognizes there are individuals with good intentions who wish to meet and look at cars, with no interest of being disruptive to the community or participate in street racing.”
The police department’s post sparked lots of comments on its Facebook page with most thanking officers for their quick action, but others criticized them for being authoritative and heavy-handed.
One person wrote, “Thank goodness! When they’re doing stuff like this, only a matter of time before they severely hurt/kill someone and then it is a liability for the ISD.. thank you BPD for shutting it down.”
Another person said, “The officers that arrived first on scene did not handle the situation accordingly. In my opinion, the police are supposed to de-escalate the situation not escalate it.”
DeAnne Hullender, a spokesperson for the school district, said there were no requests to use the parking lot on April 8.
She said there is a procedure in place where organizations submit request to the district’s business office, and there were no requests from car clubs. She said trucking firms sometimes pay the school district to use the lot for people who are getting their commercial driver’s licenses.
“This is a very unique situation that we now realize that we need to do more communication about.
She said the school district and the Bedford police department have “an excellent” relationship and are working on plans to address unauthorized meet-ups.
Hullender added that there was no damage to the parking lot, but district employees had to clean up trash on Monday.
This story was originally published April 14, 2022 at 3:40 PM.