Fort Worth police are attempting to crack down on illegal street racing and street takeovers amid a yearslong rise in such activities.
The illegal events see large crowds of people — many young car enthusiasts — blocking intersections, parking lots and streets for burnouts, racing and donuts, police said. The events have been reported across the city and beyond since the 2020 pandemic, Deputy Chief Sean Kenjura told Fort Worth City Council members during a Tuesday work session.
“They cause mayhem on the roadways, and we’re looking at different ways, through intelligence and proactivity, to really stop them from happening,” Police Chief Eddie García told the Report.
García said Fort Worth has not seen a sudden uptick in the street takeovers, but it’s still good to remind council and residents that the events are on the police department’s radar. One video of a street takeover can be amplified on social media to make the streets look lawless, while in reality it’s an isolated incident, he said.
Recently, the events have taken place mostly in private parking lots, Kenjura said at the work session. Fort Worth isn’t seeing as many takeovers of public intersections, which were more common during and following the pandemic.
In 2023, two people died after speeding away from a street takeover that Fort Worth police had started to break up.
Video of the events, which often makes its way to Instagram and TikTok, captures tires screeching, fireworks cracking and obscuring mist from fire extinguishers, according to footage from inside some of the takeovers.
Police are attempting to coordinate responses to the events across the department’s six patrol divisions, as well as introduce more traffic-calming measures — such as speed humps and pavement markings — across the city, according to a report to council.
In 2023, Gov. Greg Abbott visited Fort Worth to sign two state laws prohibiting illegal street racing and street takeovers. They broadly allow officers to search and seize vehicles used in illegal street racing or certain reckless driving exhibitions.
Council member Carlos Flores requested the report because he’s noticed street racing and other similar illegal events across Northside, the area he lives in and represents. Northside has been the site of many takeovers, Kenjura said.
“It’s born out of these observations that I’ve made,” Flores said. “Now that we have a new police chief, I wanted to see what Chief García’s input was.”
García was hired as police chief last August.
The events themselves are evolving “in both organization and execution,” according to the report to council. Organization of the events has historically taken place over public social media posts, but in recent years, it’s shifted to closed communication channels and private online groups.
That shift makes detection and prevention of the events more difficult, according to the report. Still, the police department’s strategies so far have reduced how often certain locations are used.
In the first three months of 2026, Fort Worth police received nearly 800 calls for “hot-rodding”-related activities, according to the report to the council. Of those, 18 were linked to organized street or parking lot “takeovers.”
Activity levels fluctuate seasonally and are based on enforcement trends. Flores said that as the weather warms up, the events could become more common.
Drew Shaw is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.orgor @shawlings601.
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