Gentlemen, stop your engines.
That’s the message Douglas County law enforcement hoped to send Sunday night during a crackdown on street racing.
Car races on city streets heat up with the weather every year, said Deborah Sherman, a spokeswoman for the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.
“It’s really a problem on Sunday nights,” Sherman said.
So, the sheriff’s office led an effort with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office and police departments from Lone Tree and Castle Rock to saturate popular racing sites, Sherman said.
Although the blockbuster “Fast & Furious” franchise released its seventh movie two weekends ago, area law enforcement agencies said the increase in street racing is mostly because of the warmer weather, not the movie’s influence on pop culture.
“It really has nothing to do with the movies,” Sherman said.
In Denver, racing usually goes up in the summer, said Technician Raquel Lopez, a department spokeswoman.
Racers can be hard to catch because they rarely meet in the same place, said Aurora Police Department Sgt. Chris Amsler.
“It’s a transient problem,” he said.
On Saturday night, a Douglas County sheriff’s deputy cited two drivers with engaging in exhibition of speed after they were caught driving more than 100 mph westbound on Lincoln Avenue from Chambers Road, Sherman said.
One driver said he was racing because the other driver had cut him off in traffic, according to the deputy’s report. Both drivers must appear in court in June.
“We are very concerned about people getting killed or being killed,” Sherman said.
