Latest news with #OperationWheelspin
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Yahoo
Cars seized as drivers caught 'setting up to race'
Police have seized five vehicles and are set to prosecute 14 drivers after up to 400 cars were caught "setting up to race" in Nottingham. Nottinghamshire Police said it became aware a large number of car cruisers were set to descend on the city on Saturday 3 May. A coordinated operation was then put in place at known hotspots for reckless driving, which the force said led to the seizure of cars and allowed officers to prevent issues at other locations. The force has targeted car cruising since last year as part of Operation Wheelspin, which aims to put the brakes on "meets" organised on closed social media groups. The force says the initiative, which has used number plate recognition technology to build up a database of potential problem cars, has led to a 20% reduction in related offences. Sgt James Carrington has previously told the BBC the force is "playing a game of cat and mouse" with car cruising organisers, who can often arrange multiple meets at several local locations on one night. Speaking about the operation on 3 May, he said: "We seized five cars that night alone, and 14 drivers will be prosecuted. "We also populated our database with a huge number of vehicle registration marks for further monitoring and to develop our intelligence picture going forward, as well as dispersing them out of Nottinghamshire without issue." Sgt Carrington added: "The operation was a real success and underlines how we will continue to work hard to keep people safe, prevent and disrupt antisocial behaviour being caused at these car cruise events, and do everything we can to bring offenders to justice." A further two cars were stopped, leading to police enforcement action after a smaller-scale pop-up meet on the A57 at Worksop on Bank Holiday Monday. Follow BBC Nottingham on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@ or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210. Police's cat and mouse crackdown on car cruisers Nottinghamshire Police
BBC News
10-05-2025
- BBC News
Cars seized as drivers caught 'setting up to race' in Nottingham
Police have seized five vehicles and are set to prosecute 14 drivers after up to 400 cars were caught "setting up to race" in Nottingham. Nottinghamshire Police said it became aware a large number of car cruisers were set to descend on the city on Saturday 3 May. A coordinated operation was then put in place at known hotspots for reckless driving, which the force said led to the seizure of cars and allowed officers to prevent issues at other locations. The force has targeted car cruising since last year as part of Operation Wheelspin, which aims to put the brakes on "meets" organised on closed social media groups. The force says the initiative, which has used number plate recognition technology to build up a database of potential problem cars, has led to a 20% reduction in related offences. Sgt James Carrington has previously told the BBC the force is "playing a game of cat and mouse" with car cruising organisers, who can often arrange multiple meets at several local locations on one night. Speaking about the operation on 3 May, he said: "We seized five cars that night alone, and 14 drivers will be prosecuted."We also populated our database with a huge number of vehicle registration marks for further monitoring and to develop our intelligence picture going forward, as well as dispersing them out of Nottinghamshire without issue." Sgt Carrington added: "The operation was a real success and underlines how we will continue to work hard to keep people safe, prevent and disrupt antisocial behaviour being caused at these car cruise events, and do everything we can to bring offenders to justice."A further two cars were stopped, leading to police enforcement action after a smaller-scale pop-up meet on the A57 at Worksop on Bank Holiday Monday.
The Independent
25-04-2025
- The Independent
Street racers hang from windows as they use city roads as ‘personal race track'
Drivers were filmed performing doughnuts with passengers hanging out of the car windows in footage shared by Nottinghamshire Police as part of its crackdown on individuals using the streets as their "personal race track". The footage was shared on Wednesday, 23 April, to promote Operation Wheelspin, which police say has seen action taken against more than 180 drivers and related crimes fall by 20 per cent since its launch in October. PC Abigail Green said: "We have a zero-tolerance approach to antisocial driving. 'Stunts, collisions, and excessive speed by often young and inexperienced drivers can result in life-changing injuries and fatalities on our roads."
BBC News
22-04-2025
- BBC News
'We know where you are' - police's cat and mouse car cruisers crackdown
"Oh I'm spinning... bro I'm going sideways!"The voice of an excited BMW driver racing another car, which belches black exhaust smoke as its engine revs dashcam footage gives a stark driver's-eye view of why car cruising has caused several accidents on the busy Daleside Road in jumps a red traffic light. Then as the blue lights of a police car appear behind him, he tells his friend: "Look, they pulled me bro!" The 22-year-old, from Birmingham, was one of the first drivers arrested after Nottinghamshire Police's Operation Wheelspin began in car was seized because he had already been issued with a Section 59 warning for anti-social officers seized the dashcam recording, he admitted driving without due care and attention, and driving a vehicle without a front registration has been banned from driving for 12 months and ordered to pay £130 in costs. Car cruising is nothing new, but Sgt Jim Carrington agrees that officers are now playing a game of cat and mouse, as drivers use closed social media groups to move between several locations on a single night."They are a lot more organised. They work regionally and nationally," he said."We can follow them. They will try and avoid us. What we are trying to do is send a message that Nottinghamshire is not a playground for these individuals."Sgt Carrington says the cruisers are putting both their lives and the lives of the public at risk."They're using the public highway as a race track, and if that goes wrong obviously that can create all kinds of carnage," he said. The BBC joined Operation Wheelspin as officers tracked cars converging around Nottingham and Mansfield on a Saturday database now has the number plates of more than 1,400 vehicles seen at car cruising Logan Grieh is in plain clothes so he can watch what is happening without raising suspicion and tell his uniformed colleagues which cars to intercept.A laptop in PC Grieh's unmarked police car shows a map of locations, where those cars have been picked up on automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) traffic cameras. A message over the police radio says cars are heading towards a retail park near Colwick, where drivers perform dangerous CCTV showed spectators watching cars "drifting" and skidding in circles - one with a man hanging out of the passenger window as he we arrive, a line of cars speed away. Then a silver BMW performs a "donut".Two marked police cars overtake us on blue lights, as they are called in to intercept on the A612. PC Grieh says the stunts are very dangerous because the drivers could lose control at any point."It's not guaranteed that they will complete a full donut," he says. "They can easily go into spectators that are quite close, and seriously injure them."A message comes in that the BMW has lost control on a cul-de-sac, a few miles away in Burton driver has already been issued with a Section 59 warning, so his car is of the rear tyres is almost worn away and there are two spare wheels behind the driver's seat. The driver is charged with driving while disqualified, failing to stop and driving without due care and could face a further charge of drug-driving, depending on the result of a toxicology the police hope most drivers will be deterred by their Section 59 warnings have been issued to 74 people so far and only 10 have been caught the night wears on, some of Operation Wheelspin's targets pass ANPR cameras around Castle Donington in Leicestershire, while others appear to be meeting at Worksop and the database shows vehicles heading towards another favourite car cruising spot, a short stretch of dual carriageway between two roundabouts, just off junction 27 of the M1 in Grieh watches several known number plates pass him there. It looks as though the drivers are being scared away by a marked police car dealing with a separate database shows many of them heading into Ilkeston instead, so the officers alert Derbyshire Police. By midnight, it all looks quiet, so their sergeant calls it a night. But then another message comes in. Cars are racing again at Daleside Road - the dual carriageway in Nottingham where that dashcam footage was filmed last Grieh calls in the number plate of a car that speeds away in front of him and two marked police vehicles intercept it at the next driver is given a Section 59 notice, and warned the car will be seized if he is caught he won't just be in trouble with the police, because the car belongs to his mum.
