A Sacramento councilwoman wants to crack down on illegal sideshows. Here’s how and why
Sacramento City Councilwoman Lisa Kaplan aims to curb illegal sideshow activity with a proposed update to city ordinance she said she would introduce next week.
Should it pass, the proposed change would update current city code with harsher penalties for violators that drive recklessly. Those penalties would help fund intersection upgrades that would deter sideshow activity, Kaplan said.
Sideshows are illegal gatherings in which drivers will take over intersections, streets, stretches of freeway or parking lots to perform car stunts, and spectators often watch on foot.
The current penalty for first-time sideshow offenders is $500, up to six months in jail or both, according to city code. Another violation within one year is an additional $1,000 fine, up to six months in jail or both.
Kaplan said her proposal would increase that first penalty to $1,000. With additional fees and penalties tacked on, the tab might reach several thousand dollars. She said this would even out the cost of repairs; restriping a crosswalk, for example, costs between $2,500 and $3,000.
The city is also working with the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office to ensure sideshow participants’ vehicles are impounded for a state maximum of 30 days, Kaplan said.
Upgrades to sideshow-prone intersections would include hardened center lines that add rubber barriers next to crosswalks, requiring drivers to make slower and squarer turns; and Botts’ dots, which are raised pavement markers used on curves to increase visibility, Kaplan said.
Police said they commonly see sideshow activity in neighborhoods in North Laguna, North Highlands, Gardenland, South Natomas and Land Park.
“My dad used to race at the Woodward (Dragstrip) up in Oregon,” Kaplan said. “I understand the love of racing, but not when it comes to threatening the safety of our neighborhoods.”
Sideshows ‘terrorize’ Sacramento communities, Kaplan says
Kaplan said her idea comes after hearing sideshow concerns from Northlake residents at a town hall in June.
She said she held the meeting to discuss a sideshow earlier that month that began in Elk Grove and ended up near Elkhorn Boulevard, trapping people and “terrorizing” the neighborhood. More than 100 vehicles were involved in the county-wide sideshow. Three arrests were made after two police pursuits, and 17 citations were issued.
Officers with the Sacramento Police Department are investigating stunts, gunshots and related crimes, that took place during a sideshow Saturday night and early Sunday morning in and near the city. In one incident, a bystander’s truck was allegedly set ablaze.
A Sacramento teen died in a shooting that began at a Stockton sideshow on July 2, the Stockton Record reported last month.
Two people were arrested, two vehicles were pursued, 13 vehicles were towed and 12 citations were distributed after law enforcement encountered a sideshow that spanned Sacramento and Elk Grove also on July 2.
Outside of the Sacramento region, a teenager watching an illegal street stunt show on July 28 in Tustin, north of Irvine, suffered broken bones after being hit by a car doing “burnouts,” police say.
Elsewhere in California, a man allegedy struck and killed a spectating nursing student while performing doughnuts in a Los Angeles sideshow on Christmas. Police said they arrested a suspect in connection with the crash in Albuquerque about two weeks later.
“We need to find ways to say, ‘not in our town,’ ‘not in our city,’ and we’re going to hit you in your pocketbook,” Kaplan said. “Or, we’re going to send you to jail if you’re torching cars, carrying around illegal guns and terrorizing our communities.”
State law change coming in 2025
Sideshows are already illegal in California under the state vehicle code’s sections on reckless driving. Convictions for street racing or illegal vehicle exhibitions result in jail time for not more than 90 days, a fine of not more than $500 or both.
But state legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom have authorized stronger penalties for sideshow activity, which will have the force of law in a little less than two years.
Newsom in 2021 signed Assembly Bill 3, aimed at cracking down on street racing and sideshows by adding up to a six-month driver’s license suspension to the punishment for convicted offenders, The Sacramento Bee reported at the time.
That law won’t take effect until July 1, 2025.
The new law will allow the court to order a driver’s license suspension ranging from 90 days to six months, and to restrict the convicted offender to driving only for the purposes of their employment. The law will allow the court to consider a convicted offender’s hardships when deciding whether to suspend or restrict a driver’s license.
