Police are cracking down on illegal street racing in Pacoima where people have been arrested and vehicles have been impounded.
Racers around that area are known to meet up in places like parking lots and dead-end streets, which are usually marked by tires from the vehicles' screeching.
On Sunday, August 12, officers surrounded Foothill and Balboa boulevards in Sylmar by laying out spike strips and blocking off the area where 50 to 60 people gathered.
Fifteen people were arrested and one man was locked up for reckless driving and his truck was impounded.
Police also said there have been deaths involving street racing. On July 4, a woman who was 8 months pregnant and her boyfriend were killed in Northridge.
Authorities believe that social media is intensifying the trend.
"The more risqué behavior that is associated with social media and them trying to show off to their friends and others," said Sgt. Gregory Fuqua from the Los Angeles Police Department Special Enforcement team. "What they don't realize is that somebody gets injured, it's not just a misdemeanor anymore, it's a felony and they will be prosecuted and they will go to jail."
