San Jose, California - Intersection takeovers, also known as "sideshows" have become an increasingly significant problem around the world. With the popularity of muscle cars, street racing and social media, communities have been burdened with how to address this new issue.
An intersection takeover is when a large group of spectators and high performance vehicles congregate in a public street intersection. In the middle of the intersection, one or two vehicles will drift or do "donuts" while the crowd watches. Sounds pretty innocent, but the problems that arise from the sideshow are numerous. Individuals launch fireworks, vandalize property, shoot ghost guns into the air, crash into civilians, mob responding police officers...the list goes on and on. Many departments are faced with questions on how to address these problems and quickly realize traditional tactics are ineffective.
Employing traditional tactics simply does not work. No longer does the crowd flee at the sight of a police cruiser pulling into the area. Instead, the crowd is emboldened and often surround the officers to prevent enforcement, or worse, turn their mob mentality toward the police. Often, this overwhelming force causes agencies to hesitate in conducting enforcement. They are often overwhelmed or realize they do not have a coordinated response procedure.
An agency in California, San Jose Police Department, did develop a coordinated response procedure and implemented it with total success. By using a comprehensive strategy of deterrence, enforcement and consequence, they were able to virtually eliminate the sideshow problem in their city. All encompassing, they were able to establish city municipal codes to first deter the problem, develop, implement and train ground and air tactics for responding units, then work with the city and district attorney to follow up on prosecution and civil penalties. This method had resounding success and is now available for training at your agency.
Tactical Flying Instructors Nick Byrd, Kris Kubasta and Christian Smith, pioneers in the development of sideshow enforcement, have begun sharing these techniques in a (2) day training course, available for instruction to your agency. Click here to read more about each instructor and their background.
Contact Tactical Flying to inquire about availability for the Sideshow Enforcement course.