Street racing crackdown showing results in Twin Cities, state patrol says
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota State Patrol says its "zero-tolerance approach" to street racing is paying off.
The patrol released statistics Thursday showing there were 533 fewer reported street racing events in the Twin Cities so far this year compared to last year (1,488 in 2022, and 1,133 to date in 2023).
Col. Matt Langer, the patrol's commander, cites the coordinated efforts of law enforcement on the streets and in helicopters as an impactful deterrent.
Langer says the patrol beefed up their efforts to combat illegal races in 2021, the year where three high-profile street racing-related deaths sparked outrage across the metro.
In the early morning hours of June 6, 2021, two teenagers were killed just minutes apart by stray bullets in Minneapolis during two separate street races.
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Seventeen-year-old Nicholas Enger, of Cambridge, was shot when a fight broke out at an event near East Lake Street and Hiawatha Avenue.
Nineteen-year-old Vanessa Jensen, of Lindstrom, died after taking a bullet to the arm while watching a race in north Minneapolis.
On Sept. 6, 2021, a 19-year-old Maplewood man was killed and a 19-year-old Woodbury woman was hurt when a motorist involved in a race crashed near Flying Cloud Drive and Crosstown Circle in Minnetonka.
"When enforcement efforts first began, street takeover events where groups block intersections and parking lots would have upwards of 250 vehicles," Col. Langer said. "Now those events draw in fewer than 20 vehicles."
The patrol also has made 100 more street racing-related arrests and issued 327 more citations in 2023 than last year.
NOTE: The original airdate of the video attached to this article is Aug. 3, 2022.