York Regional Police 'troll' street racing TikToker, lay dangerous driving charges

York Regional Police (YRP) is "trolling" a speed racer after the driver posted a video on TikTok claiming officers wouldn't be able to catch him.

A clip YRP posted on social media on Friday kicks off with the driver's original video, which shows himself racing on the street and the process he took in an attempt to disguise his identity from police. That included changing his car's license plate to "will run."

"No, OPP/YRP/Peel ain't catching this," the driver wrote as on-screen text in his video. "No plate, no case."

Later in the video, YRP added its own footage of officers catching the driver, towing his BMW and giving him three counts of dangerous driving charges.

"Looks like we got a case," YRP added as on-screen text alongside a clip of a smirking officer holding up two fake license plates the driver created.

The rest of the video included footage of Newmarket, Ont.'s Elliott's Towing loading the car onto a tow truck and taking it to be impounded.

"What's good for this street racing influencer? Not much since we impounded his car and charged him with dangerous driving x3, after he posted videos of himself driving recklessly across our region," YRP wrote in its caption for the post. "This is our collab: His videos and ours, after we took his car and his fake plates. No plate, no case? We'll see about that."

In the comments, some people showed their appreciation for YRP's sense of humour with the video, which has already been viewed more than two million times on TikTok alone.

"Man's gonna kick himself when he sees this lol," an Instagram user wrote.

"This edit felt personal... but I like it," another penned.

"That’s what you call a boss. Congrats, another on bites the dust," one person joked.

However, others weren't entirely impressed with YRP putting its resources into a social media post.

"How about you put more effort into putting a stop to the shootings and car jackings?" one person said.

"Why are our tax dollars being used to make these videos lmao…don’t get me wrong it’s pretty sick but why?" someone questioned, to which the YRP account replied saying, "Ounce of prevention. If it deters some others from racing for social media clout, it's done its job."

While street racing has often been a reoccurring problem, police force representatives from across the Greater Toronto Area urged the public earlier this year to report the issue when witnessed.

"Street races do not acknowledge jurisdictional boundaries. They move through freely through neighbourhoods without concern or thought for public safety," Peel Regional Police Deputy Chief Marc Andrews told CBC News in May.

In 2022, 1,106 charges related to stunt driving in the city were laid. Toronto police laid 521 charges in the first few months of 2023.

In Peel, more than 4,000 charges have been laid for street racing and stunt driving since 2018.

"Car racing should stay on the track ... if you choose to participate in dangerous and illegal driving activities, the Toronto Police Services and our partners will be there to enforce the law," said Toronto Police Services Matt Moyer.