Thrills, spills, and bills: Richmond confronts rise in car sideshows
Richmond police officials spoke with community members at the Crime Prevention meeting last week to address escalating concerns over street sideshows. Both sides exchanged ideas on improving safety amid budgetary and resource challenges.
Richmond is seeing an escalation in sideshows or gatherings where drivers perform stunts, which now often feature multiple vehicles and large crowds. Once confined to single-car spins at isolated intersections, sideshows have evolved into multi-vehicle spectacles, drawing participants and spectators from across California, including Southern California and the Central Valley.
Richmond Police Captain Matt Stonebraker explained what constitutes sideshows, which are spontaneous gatherings featuring stunt drifting or other car-related activities, and said the department is now seeing multiple cars participating in sideshows.
“Sideshows used to be small gatherings with just one car in the intersection. Now you’re seeing three or four cars, which is very dangerous,” Stonebraker said. “They’re not just thrill seekers or car enthusiasts. There’s a lot of gambling involved here, and that’s why it’s becoming a lot more dangerous.”
Stonebraker said participants are coming from all over California to watch these sideshows and bet on which car will last the longest, adding a new level of risk to the gatherings.
"It can be very dangerous even because of that element. When the people involved in the sideshow end up crashing, there's something called paying taxes, where that car could be destroyed on the spot, and the person in the car could even be assaulted as well. So it's dangerous not only for the participants and spectators but also for the community at large, everyone around them, and anybody else who's there," Stonebraker said.
Recent incidents in Richmond reflect the broader impact of these events. A sideshow near the city’s auto plaza quickly turned destructive when spectators vandalized several vehicles, smashing windows, denting them, and slashing tires.
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“As early as last week, we had a smaller sideshow where some younger participants were out there and wrecked their vehicle, and unfortunately, someone lost their life,” Stonebraker said. “It’s dangerous. We want them to stop, and we’re doing everything we can to curb that.”
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Richmond Police grapple with organized gatherings and limited personnel
Richmond police say they face ongoing challenges in combating sideshows due to limited resources and increasingly sophisticated gatherings.
“We won’t be giving away our secret sauce today,” Stonebraker said, noting the need to stay one step ahead of participants. “It really comes down to intel. We need to know where they’re going to be, and when we have that intel, we can prepare ourselves. Right now, our resources are more limited than they’ve been in the past.”
With only seven to nine officers on duty at any given time, police often find themselves outnumbered by gatherings that can attract as many as 300 vehicles. Stonebraker said officers will intervene when they witness criminal activity beyond the sideshow itself, such as people shooting guns, fighting, or vandalizing property.
“When these types of shows come into town, our officers now have to divert and handle them. We’re now taking away our resources from our community to handle this. We don’t have the staffing to do that, and it delays response times and real resources for people that actually need them,” Stonebraker said.
Police say sideshows have increasingly disrupted major streets and parking lots across Richmond. No city street is safe, but hotspots are emerging on Central Avenue near the Costco off-ramp and on Canal Boulevard near the port and marina. Other regular locations include intersections along San Pablo Avenue at Barrett and Clinton, Hilltop, and 23rd Street.
Stonebraker emphasized the importance of gathering information during sideshow incidents. “What we want to do is collect as many license plates as possible so that we can pursue these individuals afterward.” He acknowledged that actively towing vehicles and arresting participants during the chaotic events would be challenging with current staffing levels. Stonebraker said the department would need dozens of officers to push sideshow participants out of the city and keep them from coming in.
Sergeant Enrik Melgoza, who is in charge of the Richmond Police traffic unit and parking enforcement, said many of the sideshows are turning violent. Melgoza said participants are not car enthusiasts, and many of the cars are stolen.
“Not everybody’s a skilled driver, so they end up crashing into city property, taking out street lights and power boxes, which has a long-term effect on traffic the next day,” Melgoza said. “They can shut down power for neighborhoods. So it’s quite a bit of damage that occurs from these sideshows.”
Richmond Police say sideshows have become a weekly ordeal across the Bay Area, as hundreds of vehicles converge in coordinated events that move from city to city. Sideshow groups often begin in one location, such as San Jose, and then move through Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley, Richmond, and Vallejo, sometimes even reaching Sacramento. While smaller gatherings involve a dozen cars, many are highly organized with up to 300 vehicles, creating widespread disruption in their path.
According to stats shared at the meeting, Richmond had 15 sideshows last month, an average of three a week.
“They’re definitely highly organized on social media. They give starting locations where to meet up and where the next location is,” Melgoza said. “we’re trying to stay a step ahead of them with that information that they allow the public to see. It does help us at least try to get in front of it or at least prepare our staff for it.”
Richmond’s Public Works eyes long-term sideshow solutions
Richmond Public Works teams are increasingly called upon to repair damage from sideshows, where vehicles performing stunts often cause significant infrastructure damage.
Tawfic Halaby, Deputy Director of Public Works, oversees operations and maintenance, including street maintenance that may include physical deterrence to sideshows.
“I work with engineers, designers, and contractors, and we may put some physical barriers or deterrence to sideshows within the roadways,” Halaby said.
“We get called out to perform repairs on anything from street lights to traffic signal poles,” Halaby said, adding that damaged equipment, like a traffic signal controller cabinet, can take up to a week to replace and reprogram. Temporary measures, such as stop signs, are sometimes installed until permanent repairs can be completed.
The ongoing damage affects city resources, disrupts safe traffic flow, and jeopardizes pedestrian and cyclist safety. Richmond is consulting with neighboring cities to learn from their experiences and seek long-term solutions.
“We’re actively reaching out to some cities nearby to learn what has worked for them, what has not worked for them, so that we can get some ideas to help here in the City of Richmond,” Halaby said.
As Richmond grapples with the growing issue of sideshows, city officials are focusing on infrastructure planning that considers the needs of all roadway users. City planners face the challenge of maintaining safe traffic flow while deterring sideshow activities. ”Anything that we alter in the roadways will impact everybody who uses the roadway,” Halaby said.
Richmond streets must accommodate a variety of vehicles, including public safety units such as police cars and fire trucks, buses, bicycles, and regular passenger vehicles. The infrastructure must also support the logistics of delivery services and weekly recycling, landfill, and compost collection for Richmond homes and businesses.
“We have to accommodate everybody all the time. It has to not impede the flow, the regular flow of traffic and safe driving at the same time deterring side shows,” Halaby said. “So we’re not going to be building large concrete barriers in the middle of roadways or intersections.”
Halaby said city planners have to get creative to accommodate everybody who needs to use the roads while trying to slow down or deter activities, such as sideshows. “So it’s very challenging. It’s not an easy solution,” he said.
Governor Newsom's new laws expand vehicle impoundment and broaden definitions to tackle sideshows
California cities, including Richmond, are exploring new tools provided by recent state legislation to address the surge in organized sideshows. According to Michelle Milam, crime prevention manager, Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed several bills designed to enhance enforcement.
“It’s not your mother’s sideshow, where people just spin donuts, and there are a couple of people you’re talking about, hundreds of people coordinated across the state. Governor Newsom felt there was a call to act, so he signed a couple of bills into law,” Milam said.
These laws establish stronger penalties for illegal street races, expand vehicle impoundment authority to include spectators, and clarify the definitions of sideshows and street takeovers, enabling law enforcement to take action across jurisdictions.
Police advise against community members trying to break up sideshows and instead encourage reporting detailed descriptions of vehicles participating in sideshows.
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