TUCSON (KVOA) - It’s a loud and dangerous activity that is literally keeping an eastside Tucson neighborhood up at night.
Multiple residents in the La Estancia neighborhood went to News 4 Tucson with concerns about “regular” street racing going on nearby and their reports to Tucson Police seeming, to them, to go unnoticed.
Speaking with the N4T Investigators, some residents said the sound from the street racing is louder than the trains that regularly roll through on the tracks adjacent to the neighborhood.
“It wakes us up in the middle of the night because you can hear screeching tires and sometimes what sounds like accidents,” said Donna Snyder.
The issue seems to be so prevalent and impacting the lives of residents in the neighborhood that not a single person stopped and questioned by News 4 Tucson didn’t know about or have a personal experience about being disturbed by the street racing.
One resident named Shelby, who asked we don’t use her last name, has taken it upon herself to try and gather evidence against the street racers.
Shelby took video of a group of people with fast cars, one driver can be seen and heard doing donuts in a warehouse parking lot near La Estancia, according to Shelby.
“They are ripping out of that parking lot going 80, 90 miles per hour, running through red lights it’s only a matter of time before someone gets killed,” Shelby said.
Shelby also captured video from her home security camera, in the video you can hear the screeching tires and engine revs from a nearby street race.
“I live on the opposite side of the neighborhood and it’s setting off my security cameras by the sound and I don’t even have the sound notifications turned on,” Shelby explained.
Shelby and the many others we spoke with said the activity is happening almost every Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the early morning hours. Some said it also has happened during the week.
Another thing each person we spoke to has in common, is they all said they have reported the issue to Tucson Police but feel as if their reports aren’t being taken seriously.
Donna Snyder said she’s been waiting weeks and hasn’t heard anything from TPD.
“When I called them before there were days I waited for them to respond and this has now been three weeks and I still haven’t heard from them,” Snyder said.
Her neighbor named Audreya, who also doesn’t want us using her last name, feels the same way. She said her worry between the street racing, break-ins and package thefts, all of which she said seemed to receive little attention from TPD, is that criminals will get the impression they can commit crimes in her neighborhood without repercussions.
“You can do what you want out here and the neighborhood is left to fend for itself,” Audreya said.
Shelby too said her multiple reports to Tucson Police seemed to have been met with a long response time, oftentimes, she said it would take more than an hour before an officer would arrive. Out of the several times, she’s called 911 reporting the street racers, only once she said there were some results. Not enough to stop the activity though, according to Shelby.
“It took them 45 minutes to an hour to respond, they were able to bring charges on a few of them for the disturbing of the peace because I had it all on video, I had all their license plates and descriptions. So, if someone is not physically going over there no one does anything about the situation,” Shelby said.
The N4T Investigators went to the area where Shelby said the racers are often gathered, by warehouses on Century Park Drive near Kolb, we could see many tire marks on the road and what appeared as someone doing donuts.
On Dec. 1, News 4 Tucson made an official request to Tucson Police’s Records Department requesting to know how many complaints and reports have been made regarding street racing on the eastside. So far TPD has not provided us with the information.
Tuscon Police Lt. Bob Garza did an interview over the phone with the N4T Investigators and said street racing has become a growing problem across the City.
“This kind of issue has taken a hold of the entire City itself,” Lt. Garza said.
Lt. Garza said he doesn’t know why the street racing has blown up so rapidly the past few months and said the Department is looking at ways of improving its capabilities of addressing it.
“Right now we have a traffic division that is going to work with the patrols to get these deployments up and running so that we can specifically target the street racing issue without worrying about other crimes occurring,” Lt. Garza said.
Lt. Garza stopped short of stating TPD has a resource problem. He said response times to such calls can be slow if officers are dealing with other emergency calls deemed more urgent.
N4T Investigator Chorus Nylander asked him how many officers are regularly assigned to the eastside. Lt. Garza said there is no set number and the amount of available units fluctuates depending on various factors such as officer scheduling. Like any business he said they deal with sick leave and other absences.
Lt. Garza said he assures the residents of La Estancia TPD is aware of the problem. He said street racing is hard to enforce because the races can pop up just about anywhere in the City without TPD knowing about it, until sometimes after the group has left.
Lt. Garza urges anyone who sees a group of street racers driving dangerously or being a disturbance to call 911 so officers know where they are at. Although residents like Shelby said they have done that and don’t feel like much of anything was done despite the area near their neighborhood being a regular gathering location.
If you have a story you would like us to look into email us at investigators@kvoa.com or call our tipline 955-4444.
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December 16, 2020 at 12:15PM
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N4T Investigators: Street racing disturbing eastside neighborhood, residents claim slow response from TPD - KVOA Tucson News
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