Police chief says tickets issued at Saturday ‘street takeover’ unlikely to prevent similar events in future

QUINCY — Adam Yates, chief of the Quincy Police Department, doesn’t expect the issuance of 11 tickets to nine people for various violations on Saturday night to bring to an end a recent run of “street takeover” events that have been popping up this spring.

“Thinking that this was a one-time thing would be very naïve,” Yates said after Monday’s Quincy City Council meeting. “We expect that there’s going to be more events like this. This is not only a regional but a national trend that’s going on right now.”

The police department learned of the takeover event scheduled for Saturday night, and it partnered with the Illinois State Police and the Quincy Park District to enhance enforcement efforts. Tickets eventually were issued for various violations such as reckless driving, speeding, driving while license suspended and loud exhausts.

“What it means going forward is that if we have intelligence that tells us that there’s going to be more of these types of events planned for the city of Quincy, we are going to coordinate a law enforcement response to deter this type of behavior,” Yates said. “We’re going to continue to work with our law enforcement partners to keep an eye on social media and keep an eye out for information that might be put out there for future events.”

Yates said the police department learned on social media about a week and a half ago about the intended street takeover, so the Adams County Sheriff’s Department and the Illinois State Police were contacted, as well as law enforcement agencies in Missouri. 

“We did everything that we could to inhibit the ability for these individuals to, I guess, engage in illegal activity or reckless driving activity, and to deter any further activities like this going forward,” Yates said. “We were aware that the event was going to start at about six o’clock. Our officers were on the street about an hour prior, encountered a number of suspect vehicles in various parking lots and began enforcement activity very early on. We disbanded a couple of groups that were gathering and ultimately took enforcement action at various locations around the city of Quincy.”

Yates described a street takeover as a group of cars, trucks, motorcycles and occasionally ATVs that will either gather in public parking lots or private parking lots and engage generally in what he called “squealing tires” or burnouts or drifting. 

“They’ll do donuts and just basic activity that is very dangerous for those who are involved,’ Yates said. ”It’s also something likely to damage property. It’s been an ongoing problem. We are going to continue to work with our law enforcement partners, specifically the Illinois State Police, who are going to lead the charge on intelligence gathering if we learn if any more of these types of events that are planned for the city of Quincy.” 

Yates said these kinds of events have been happening in the parking lot of Kohl’s, as well as Upper Moorman Park and Kesler Park. 

“We will not only enforce the various traffic laws that we have available to us, but there are also trespassing rules for a lot of the private parking lots that we’re going to start enforcing,” Yates said.

He said the city has a zero-tolerance policy for any type of illegal activity — reckless driving, speeding, squealing tires, whatever may be going on.

“This is not only a safety issue for those who are driving on our streets and those who are participating in these events,” Yates said. “They’re also having an issue with property damage. More than anything, it’s a quality-of-life issue for the citizens of Quincy.” 

He said many of the participating vehicles have loud mufflers, squeal tires and create a lot of noise that can be troubling to the citizens of Quincy, Yates said. 

“We just want everyone to know that we’re aware of what’s going on,” he said. “We’re doing what we can to deter this type of activity. We would prefer it just didn’t happen, but if it does happen, and members of our community do choose to participate in this type of activity, we’re going to respond in kind.”