REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Introduce an Ordinance to Add Chapter 10.62 of Title 10 (Vehicles and Traffic) of the Sunnyvale Municipal Code Relating to Exhibitions and Speed Contests, Amend Section 1.04.101(b) of Chapter 1.04 (General Penalty) Relating to Violation-Misdemeanor or Infraction, and Adopt a Resolution to Amend the City Fee Schedule
Report
BACKGROUND
The City is facing a serious problem with illegal street racing and sideshows, a problem which endangers innocent bystanders and law enforcement in addition to participants and spectators. Since January 2021, there have been over 20 sideshows and sideshow related events. Historically, these events took place on the north end of Sunnyvale, in largely empty, commercial areas at night. Recently, sideshows have evolved and are now found in all areas throughout the City. Sideshows have occurred on private property and on public streets, and during both daytime and evening hours. Sideshows and organized racing events can include over one hundred cars, and are becoming increasingly more violent, requiring massive police responses that have pulled in large numbers of public safety officers. It has become clear that the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety (SDPS) needs additional tools and resources to adequately respond to the proliferation of sideshows.
While the characteristics of sideshows vary, there are some significant core elements that are observed by officers. Participants often block streets with their cars, set up improvised racetracks and exhibition areas, use people as lookouts to alert them of a public safety response, and use others to act as human guard rails. These reckless exhibitions often result in vehicles accelerating at high rates of speed, doing "donuts" in intersections with passengers hanging out of windows, and coming perilously close to striking spectators. When patrol vehicles arrive on scene at the unlawful sideshows, participants and spectators are often alerted by posted...
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