If you’re wondering how CHP helicopters go about catching sideshows in the act, these images should probably make that painfully obvious.
According to CHP – Valley Division Air Operations yesterday, CHP officers handed out multiple citations out and impounded close to a dozen cars participating in sideshows. Attached to their Facebook post where screenshots from their helicopter camera showing just how easy it is to catch these guys in the act. Check out the post below.
A variant of the sideshow called the freeway takeover is when sideshow cars form a line, gradually slowing down stopping a freeway before they rip a few donuts in front of some very frustrated commuters. As you can see in the first photo, this sideshow is fairly easy to catch because presumably, the CHP gets a flood of calls from motorists having to deal with this inconvenience.
The second and third photos use the CHP’s infrared option on their nose cam with the telltale signs of burning rubber forming neat little circles on mob filled intersections and empty parking lots. A quick relay of their location to police on the ground takes care of those miscreants.
Finally, empty cul-de-sacs are a popular place for cars to rip some donuts, and although this single car in the last photo was probably harder to catch if the driver is dumb enough to rip some mean ones near houses, calls to police with his coordinates from concerned neighbors got him caught in short order.
Last month I explained why California police are ticketing and impounding modified cars and sideshow behavior is directly related to this increased police response.
Although it probably costs several thousand dollars a night to keep that CHP helicopter up in the air, making sure that these sideshow attendees get caught, sideshows are dangerous so protecting the less than vigilant attendee from injury is worth it. A quick search on Youtube and you can see why.
So, if you get a text or message on social media that you should definitely hit up this sideshow going down, be warned that you may get a citation. Worse, if you bring your car, you might even get it impounded. Because when you hear the ChopChopChop sound of the CHP helicopter above you, it’ll already be too late.
