33 arrested over the weekend as Dallas police crack down on street racing
Thirty-three people were arrested and six guns were seized over the weekend as Dallas police continued a crackdown on street racing incidents in the city, according to Dallas Police Department statistics released on Tuesday.
In addition, Dallas police made more than 200 traffic stops and issued 181 traffic citations during the weekend.
Ten incidents involved Dallas officers seizing drugs, according to the statistics.
In Fort Worth, police said on Tuesday that statistics on street racing arrests were not readily available and advised seeking the figures through an open records request.
In November, a Fort Worth couple died after their car was hit by a street racing vehicle in southwest Fort Worth, police said. Days later, a petition was circulated by residents wanting Fort Worth officials to curb street racing.
Fort Worth officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Dallas police created a speeding and racing task force after residents voiced concern over reckless drivers in the city.
Beginning the weekend of Feb. 19 to Feb. 21, members of the Dallas task force have been out each weekend, focusing on speeders and reckless drivers.
“We recognize there is more work to done done; however, the men and women of the Dallas Police Department hear the concerns of the citizens and are working tirelessly to end these senseless driving behaviors,” said Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia in a Tuesday news release. “We are aggressively seeking these particular traffic violators and it’s resulting not only in arrests for speeding and reckless driving, but we are getting guns and drugs off our streets as well.”
In one case last weekend in Dallas, task force officers arrested a driver and seized packages of marijuana, a scale, and large amount of cash.
Task force officers also took into custody a driver at 12100 E. Northwest Highway who had been performing donuts around gasoline pumps. Officers also found a Mini Draco pistol in his possession.
Ben and Meg Arbour, both 39, were killed in November after Fort Worth police reported they were were in a car, pulling into the 4700 block of West Risinger Road, when one of two vehicles racing in the street crashed into them.
The Arbours’ four children were not with them at the time of the fatal crash.
The racing vehicle, only occupied by a driver, went into a stone wall and the car flipped over, police said. All three people were pronounced dead on the scene.
Marcus D. Bell, 19, of Fort Worth, was identified as the driver in the other car according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office website
Just days after that fatal crash, a petition with more than 1,800 signatures was circulated by residents who wanted Fort Worth city officials and police to address a ”rampant problem of illegal street racing.”
The petition, started by David Ferrell, noted the problem has been going on for years in the Summer Creek area in southwest Fort Worth.
