Tickets for hazardous moving violations are up 680% in Dearborn, Michigan in the last five months since Issa Shahin, a 24-year veteran of the Dearborn Police Department, took over as chief. He’s serious about getting tough on reckless driving and his department was in the news with a related story as recently as June 1 for impounding a Mustang with a hideous paint job that was doing donuts in the middle of traffic.
This week, a brazen trio of reckless drivers caught the chief’s attention for performing burnouts in the dumbest possible place: right in front of the police station, with security cameras dotting the perimeter. Stop for a moment and consider the potential brain malfunctions that resulted in this decision.
“When this happened, I was in my office and I could hear the sounds, and so were some of my other members of the department,” Shahin told WDIV News. “I literally looked out my window and saw these kids doing the burnout right in front of the police station.”
The chief bolted outside to grab the offenders’ license plate numbers and saw passengers hanging out the window, taunting him and anyone within range. Officers quickly tracked down and arrested three people associated with the incident, then impounded all three vehicles. Two of those were forfeited to the police.
If you’re intent on burnouts and donuts, you’ve got to be smart about it. This past January, The Drive reported a story about a Chevrolet driver who received a 30-day hold on his car after hooning it around a parking lot and crashing into a pole. In May, Chris Tsui wrote about a Miata driver who was doing donuts in an empty lot and was subsequently charged with a felony.
“If you’re reckless driving–and I want to be clear here–if you’re you’re driving recklessly and you’re putting people’s lives in danger, your car’s going to be pulled over, you’re going to be arrested, your car’s going to be impounded, and if it meets the criteria, the vehicle will be forfeited, if you’re putting other people’s lives at risk,” Shahin said.
The burnout lines on the pavement are dark and deep, and they’re going to be the last ones these drivers create for a while.
Got a tip? Send it to kristin.shaw@thedrive.com.