Gone too far? SoCal police in Irvine partnered together to invade a car meet that resulted in dozens of tickets, many ordered to show up at a state ref to get their car checked for compliance.

The new year brought several new laws empowering the CHP and local police to stop and oftentimes unfairly slap a mandatory fine on modded cars. And in one of the first shows of outright force earlier yesterday (Jan 11, 2019) local police in Irvine partnered with local UC Irvine Police, the Orange County Sherrif’s department, and the CHP and invaded a local car meet with inside information that “street racing” was being organized.

In the social media post they shared, which I’ve posted below, Irvine police go through a laundry list of all ticketable offenses they doled out that night including ticketing more than 80 cars and sending 20 to the state ref.

Just in case the above post goes down, here’s what Irvine police posted verbatim.

“Last night, the Irvine PD Traffic Bureau received information that a car club, suspected of engaging in street racing, may be gathering in the city. IPD Traffic officers, joined by our partners at OCSD, CHP, and UCI PD, conducted patrols of the area and found several hundred people associated with the club gathered at a local shopping center. While in the area, Officers and Deputies made over 80 traffic enforcement stops for various violations, conducted 28 vehicle inspections looking for illegal modifications, wrote 56 citations, and ordered 20 vehicles to be inspected by the state Bureau of Automotive Repair for further inspection and correction of illegal modifications. We are working hard on a daily basis to keep Irvine safe!”

When I say surround I literally mean police circled the car meet, blocked off any exits, and insured themselves that anyone at the meet would be pulled over when they drove by just for you being there.

A post from @TheBigBangMeets shows just how bad it was. From the looks of the car meet and from several posts on social media it looked like your regular everyday car meet at night, cars filling the parking lot. But, to police, supposedly several street races were being organized whether that was actually happening or not, there’s no proof.

Although the Irvine police did not specifically say why 20 were ordered to go to a state ref, most likely they used the new AB 1824 law which allows any police officer to slap you with a $200 fine if they deem your exhaust is not in order, too loud, or not in emissions compliance even if it isn’t.

Earlier this week I blogged about how one police officer slapped this auto enthusiast with a $1,000 fine which was later deemed to be an incorrect fine amount. Regardless, that was enough to get everyone’s attention living in California with even the smallest mod to their car and shedding more light on what amounts to a way for police to extract fines from innocent car enthusiasts.

Police are getting the message across and the word is spreading, it’s a zero-tolerance approach to car racing which means showing up to car meets, blocking off exits, and generally being a pain for local car enthusiasts in general. Police are getting smarter, they’re monitoring social media, partnering with local law enforcement agencies in their vicinity, and gathering statistics wherever they are.

For now, I’d say slap on your stock exhaust, use common sense if you hoon and if you do go to car meets, regulate (no burnouts, revving, or generally being a nuisance.)

Source: Irvine Police

 

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