Law enforcement agencies working together to stop street racing in New York City

NEW YORK — Street racers are taking over our roads and our social media feeds. It’s a dangerous and illegal game that can have deadly consequences.

CBS2 is investigating how social media is fueling it and recently got a first hand look at how police are trying to control this phenomenon.

Daniel Crawford was driving to work for his early morning shift at Queens Hospital in November of 2020, but as he rode along Parsons Boulevard in Kew Gardens, investigators believe he got caught in the middle of two racing cars.

“They T-boned his car and both of them hit the car,” said Kelly Hailey, Crawford’s cousin.

Within hours, Crawford was dead.

“Danny was like the light of our family, and that light is gone. It’ll never be turned back on. We’ll never hear his voice again. We’ll never see him again. And its all because somebody wanted to drive fast down the street,” Hailey said.

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Street racing has exploded in New York City. CBS2’s investigation found that 3-1-1 complaints about street racing in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan are up more than 1,000% from just five years ago.

“They don’t keep it secret. They’re constantly on social media broadcasting their events, broadcasting drag races,” NYPD Highway Patrol Capt. Ledroige Manuel said.

For New York, alone, there are countless social media pages racking in hundreds of thousands of views on videos of street racing, donuts, and what’s called “swimming,” when drivers weave through traffic at high speeds.

“They post almost lap times going down certain stretches of they highway and almost challenging other people to beat it,” Sgt. Brian Kim said.

The faster you go and the more dangerous you drive, the more views you get. It begs the question: has social media made street racing worse?

“It definitely has made it more challenging for us in the law enforcement community because people are broadcasting it on social media, trying to encourage people to engage,” Manuel said.

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So CBS2 rode along with the NYPD Highway Patrol, for a joint operation with state police and Westchester County police to find street racers.

“This right here on the left-hand side is pretty much like their straightaway,” Highway Patrol Officer Peter Echendy said.

The agency partnership is key, police say, because if a racer is driving too fast, at a certain point officers are not allowed to follow.

When asked how they can catch a drag racer if they can’t chase after them, Manuel said, “If we’re able to get that license plate and we follow up with good investigation, all of us working together, we’ve had success rates. We were able to track that person down.”

Working together, cops can intercept cars rather than chase them.

“So drag racers on their end, we can hear them coming into the city and they’ll tell us exactly where it is,” Echendy said.

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It’s still hard to see racers coming, but it is easy to see where they’ve been. Some use blow torches on the roads to get better traction before a ride and that leaves shiny streaks along popular stretches.

By the end of CBS2’s night with law enforcement, police arrested two suspected street racers and seized their vehicles.

But with the prospect of both online clout and tens of thousands of dollars in winnings, new street racers are just around the corner.

“You may get away with it now, you might win now, but something will happen,” Hailey cautioned.