Evo Street Racers: Street Racing Legislation

Drag-Net: SDPD's Street Racing Unit Takes A Detour

Source: News 8 KFMB
Date: April 7, 2007

Drag-Net, the San Diego Police Department's undercover unit, has been successful at putting the brakes on street racing. But the program ended last week. As Stan Miller reports, some wonder if Drag-Net is a victim of its own success.

In the first part of the decade, illegal street racing had reached epidemic proportions in and around San Diego. Nineteen-year-olds Shanna Jump and Brian Hanson were killed in a spontaneous race. They were among the 16 people who died as a result of a street race in 2002.

The previous year the SDPD, with a grant from the state, established Drag-Net, a specially trained undercover unit to combat street racing. Last week, Drag-Net reached the end of the road.

"The primary goal of that was so that we could initiate what we did in San Diego to the rest of the state," SDPD Executive Assistant Chief Bill Maheu said.

The official line: street racing isn't a problem in San Diego.

But Lydia DeNecochea, the executive director of Race Legal, the foundation that sponsors races at Qualcomm Stadium, is concerned street racing is making a comeback.

"From what I hear is that it's resurfacing, and they are starting to reorganize again," DeNecochea said. "When our participation decreases, it is an indicator that they are moving and doing it somewhere else."

Chief Maheu says if street racing returns, San Diego PD is ready.

"So rather that have one sergeant and five officers working in this, we have at least 24, 35 to 40 should it come up again," he said.

And the work Drag-Net began will continue.

"We still have the spectator ordinance, and we have the vehicle forfeiture," Maheu said.

But Lydia is still concerned.

"At this point with it being decentralized if you will, how is that going to be handled?" she said.

The chief says with trained officers in every division.

Street Legal continues to sponsor racing at Qualcomm Stadium, but race organizers say they need funding to continue.