LAPD Boxes In 700-Person Street Takeover, Arrests 69 and Impounds 200 Cars

For Angelenos Who’ve Lived With Takeovers, This Crackdown Hits Different

Los Angeles is finally putting some serious weight behind its street-takeover crackdown. LAPD says an overnight operation in Harbor Gateway ended with 69 arrests, 570 citations and 200 vehicles impounded after more than 700 people converged near Figueroa Street and Alondra Boulevard.

For anyone who has lived near this stuff, the numbers land differently. During the COVID years, we watched versions of it right here in Mid-Wilshire: raced-out cars — sometimes barely holding themselves together — flying down residential streets, running red lights, heading the wrong way, peeling out and doing donuts in intersections while the smell of burnt rubber hung over the neighborhood. It was not some cute little car-culture moment when you were trying to sleep, walk the dog or simply cross the damn street.

FOX 11 was given a behind-the-scenes look at what LAPD called Operation Street Sweeper. This was not officers arriving after the crowd scattered and writing a few tickets. Police used intelligence gathering and drone surveillance to track four takeovers developing overnight, then waited as the largest gathering built car by car.

More than 150 officers were assigned to the operation. Arrest teams stayed out of sight, and officers were instructed to move without lights or sirens. Once the crowd at Figueroa and Alondra had grown past 700 people, teams closed in from the north, south, east and west. The goal, LAPD said, was to stop the familiar cycle of breaking up one takeover only to have the crowd relocate somewhere else.

Instead, police contained the scene and processed people one by one. Two jail buses were brought in. Tow trucks lined up. The final tally was 69 arrests, including 66 people accused of participating in or aiding a street race or takeover, plus additional arrests involving assault, battery and obstruction allegations.

Two Hundred Cars, Seven Guns and 128 Kids Out Past Curfew

The citations tell another part of the story. LAPD says 442 people were cited for spectating at a speed contest or exhibition of speed, while 128 juveniles received curfew citations. Police also recovered seven firearms and canisters of nitrous oxide. One vehicle caught fire during the operation; authorities reported no injuries.

That juvenile number is the one parents should sit with. LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said officers have encountered children as young as 11 years old at street takeovers and warned parents that these gatherings are not harmless entertainment. His point was grim but pretty impossible to argue with: the next phone call could be from a hospital — or worse.

And yes, this is where our patience gets thin. Kids do stupid things. Teenagers test limits. That part is ancient history. But if your minor child is wandering around a 700-person illegal street takeover in the middle of the night, the adults responsible for them need to know where the hell they are. The city cannot be the only grown-up in the room.

LAPD Says This Was Not a One-Off

The obvious question is whether Los Angeles can keep doing this. Deploying more than 150 officers for one operation is a major lift, especially for a department its own chief acknowledges is short-staffed. McDonnell would not promise a weekly or monthly schedule, but he did say LAPD intends to assemble similar task forces with the California Highway Patrol and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department when circumstances call for them.

In other words: this was not supposed to be a holiday-weekend stunt. LAPD says it is continuing to track organizers and intelligence around future takeovers, including activity on social media. McDonnell also said he wants organizers potentially exposed to felony conspiracy charges when they use social platforms to bring people together for criminal activity.

He wants an even louder deterrent for the cars themselves: legislation that could allow Los Angeles to seize and potentially crush vehicles used in street takeovers. That proposal would require action beyond LAPD, and police had not yet determined how many of the 200 impounded vehicles were stolen, rented or belonged to someone other than the person driving them.

That distinction matters. Accountability should land on the people actually responsible, not become an excuse for sloppy punishment. But after years of neighborhoods waking up to engines screaming, intersections blocked, rubber burning and drivers treating public streets like private stunt lots, seeing the city move beyond the usual dispersal-and-repeat routine is a very welcome change.

Watch FOX 11 Go Behind LAPD’s Harbor Gateway Street Takeover Crackdown

FOX 11 reporter Andres Gutierrez was given a behind-the-scenes look as LAPD tracked the crowd, surrounded the Harbor Gateway takeover and carried out Operation Street Sweeper.

Source: FOX 11 Los Angeles.