RICHMOND, Va. — Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards says his department now has a plan in place to stop street takeovers after he said they were "not prepared" during an early-morning incident at Libbie and Patterson avenues last month.
Edwards said to discourage future street takeovers, Richmond police would need to stop participants from having success.
More than a month after the original incidents, the department is already seeing results.
"Two weeks later, they tried to come back. Now the difference in that is we had a plan in place. We had a team stood up. We had intelligence beforehand that they were coming. We were we were able to effectively address it," Edwards said. "We have a standing plan in place to designate one of our four lieutenants that's working. If they come back, we will designate that lieutenant to focus on it no matter where it goes in the city. That seemed to be a challenge last time."
Watch: Drivers did donuts, crowds threw eggs during street takeover in Richmond's West End, witnesses say
He is also coordinating with the Commonwealth's Attorney to ensure people who participate in street takeovers will be held accountable.
"We made 11 arrests. We towed two cars. We're coordinating very closely with the Commonwealth's Attorney to ensure that people understand that a reckless driving charge when it comes over takeover is totally different than a reckless driving car charge for just going 21 miles an hour over the speed limit," Edwards said.
Countless people who live in the area of Libbie and Patterson Avenues had reached out to CBS 6 concerned about what they perceived as a lack of a police response to the street takeover that happened there on a Sunday morning in early March.
"I didn't see the police doing anything. That was kind of disturbing,” said one man who witnessed what happened.
“They were parked further away and well enough away it appeared that they weren't getting out of their cars,” a woman who lives nearby added.
CBS 6 took their concerns to Police Chief Rick Edwards.
"How did Richmond police respond to this incident? And do you feel like that was enough of a response?” CBS 6 investigative reporter Melissa Hipolit asked a couple of weeks after the incident.
“We've been successful in the past. Unfortunately, you know, into Sunday morning, we were, we were not prepared,” Edwards responded.
Edwards said at the time that to discourage future street takeovers RPD would need to stop participants from having success.
"So we're going to, we're going to be prepared. We have our real time crime center that's going to flag this, so they're continuing to work on this. If we can identify people, we're going to arrest them."
This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have additional information to share.
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