An “evil” criminal element combined with the social media “sensationalism factor” are contributing to an increasing level of violence seen at illegal street racing, road police say.

In the most recent incident, an officer suffered minor injuries after a ute rammed a police patrol car at a gathering of 1000 illegal street racers near Hamilton.

It comes as Police Minister Mark Mitchell and Transport Minister Simeon Brown seek advice on legislative changes to crack down on illegal street racing.

Waikato District road policing manager Inspector Jeff Penno said several officers had a narrow escape from severe injury at the Horotiu meet in August.

“They were really lucky. If people are going to start blatantly attacking the police like that, that’s some pretty deep social issues there.

“Like or hate the police, we are what stands between anarchy and lawfulness.”

While police were well-prepared for the event, the close call involved an escalation in violence that also included beer bottles being thrown at a police car.
Penno said there was an element at the event that was “evil”.

“It just had a criminal undertone. They want to cause as much trouble as they can and they do not care about the consequences.”

The ramming incident, which resulted in charges against an 18-year-old Ōtorohanga man, was caught on camera, with Penno saying social media fuelled the behaviour by glorifying it.

It had also helped street racers become more organised so that large-scale events like the one at Horotiu were now popping up in different locations across the country.

Inspector Jeff Penno. Photo / RNZ / Libby Kirkby-McLeod.

Illegal street racers - previously dubbed boy racers - had become more sophisticated in recent years, Penno said.

“We had an incident about two or three weeks ago where they towed their car to a location in rural Waikato - they had trolley jacks, they had a compressor, they had tyres, and they jacked the car up, they did their massive burnouts and put it back on the trailer and went home.

“It was luckily caught on camera so we took that car.”

Penno said there was now a very high level of premeditation compared to illegal racers of decades past.

“The hardcore group are disguising their vehicles. They’re removing all identification from them.”

In order to stay one step ahead, police devoted a lot of resources to combating illegal racing.

That included an operation every weekend, changing tactics from using vehicle testing inspectors to write cars off the road, to bailiffs checking for driver fines.

There were also two staff members solely dedicated to getting warrants to impound cars, a significant road presence, and forensic work to link offending to a vehicle - often turbo-charged Japanese imports and, more recently, Ford Falcons.

Hamilton’s deputy mayor Angela O’Leary, who heads up the city council’s infrastructure and transport committee, said the council introduced a bylaw in 2015 banning light vehicles from certain streets at night.

The streets were agreed in consultation with fed-up residents and the bylaw was working to discourage illegal street racing at those spots, she said.

“It’s a really big problem and it’s really awful for residents who are plagued with screaming car tyres in the middle of the night and dangerous behaviour.”

A similar bylaw was recently introduced in Waipā.

Other efforts included anti-skid road surfacing, which was proving successful on the roads where it was used.

O’Leary said providing skid pads was not the answer and not affordable for ratepayers, and suggested real power to curb the behaviour lay with the Government.

“If we continue to see an escalation in illegal street racing and cars being used as weapons then I would support governments to have a zero-tolerance policy and crush cars.

“It’s only a matter of time before somebody is probably killed and nobody wants to see that.”

Transport Minister Simeon Brown suggested new legislation could be on the way to curb gatherings of “increasingly hostile” car enthusiasts.

“Illegal street racing is dangerous for participants and members of the public, and it causes a nuisance in neighbourhoods and communities across the country,” he said.

“Dangerous driving and illegal street racing should have no place in our society, and we’re determined to get tougher on this anti-social behaviour.

“The Minister of Police and I are continuing to get advice on legislative changes to crack down on illegal street racing, and we will have more to say on this in due course.”

Meanwhile, the Ōtorohanga teenager will reappear in the Hamilton District Court next month facing charges of intentionally damaging a police car and receiving a stolen truck.

Current offences include operating a vehicle in an illegal race, or in an unnecessary exhibition of speed or acceleration, or in a manner that causes the vehicle to undergo sustained loss of traction.

Police may impound a vehicle for 28 days and courts can issue a $4500 fine, three months in prison and/or suspend a licence for six months.

Courts may also confiscate and sell vehicles after a first offence, must confiscate and sell a vehicle after a second offence, and may destroy a vehicle after the third offence.

If the offence caused injury, courts may impose a $20,000 fine; a sentence of five years in prison; and must disqualify a licence for one year or more.

If the offence caused death the maximum prison time increases to 10 years.

- RNZ