Zoe Berg

Law enforcement officers from New Haven and nearby towns are taking advantage of a cold weather-induced lull in violent crime, collaborating to prevent street takeovers.

Two months ago, the New Haven Police Department formed a multi-jurisdictional task force with nearby police departments and the State Police to crack down on auto-related crime, including street takeovers. Street takeovers occur when individuals in cars, dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles occupy a block or intersection, usually late at night. Reckless driving in front of a precarious audience of spectators — many who film the takeover — has caused injuries and prompted arrests.

The task force consists of officers from over six municipalities who share intelligence and work to preempt auto thefts and street takeovers, and serve warrants for their participants, according to Chief of Police Karl Jacobson.

“They go through social media to see if they can pick up on any planned [takeovers] — a lot of them are last minute,” Jacobson said. “We have all the different towns with us, so then we’ll check the areas where we know that we have them.”

Because the State Police provides officers to the task force, the team can “pretty much go anywhere,” Jacobson said, because the state police have arrest powers throughout Connecticut.

According to NHPD Communications Officer Christian Bruckhart, street takeovers now seem to be at a pause, which he attributes to the cold weather.

“With the dirt bikes and ATVs, we don’t see as many as we do in the summer months,” Bruckhart said. “Violence in general tends to go down, especially this time of year., but they’re still happening.”

Two weeks ago, New Haven police arrested a 47-year-old woman for allegedly advertising and organizing street takeovers on social media. She was charged with “inciting a riot” and is scheduled to appear in court in March.

Bruckhart explained that this arrest could act as a deterrent to potential street takeover organizers, by showing that officers follow online trails.

“People feel that there’s a level of anonymity to social media,” Bruckhart said. “Arrests like this hopefully give people pause.”

The Yale Police Department, whose officers patrol a specific downtown area consisting mostly of Yale-owned buildings, has two officers participating in the task force, according to Anthony Campbell ’95 DIV ’09, the department’s police chief. Campbell noted that the YPD has not experienced street takeovers within its area of responsibility.

In North Haven, a town of just under 25,000 inhabitants, a street takeover in late December that featured a ring of fire in the street resulted in two individuals injured. Michael Freda, the town’s first selectman, said that he is committed to preempting future takeovers, including through his town’s involvement with the task force.

“We have a very extensive intel network with state police and federal authorities,” Freda said. “I’m working very closely with all the other mayors. All of us are on board with this, meaning that we want it to stop, and if it doesn’t stop, our goal would be to stop it.”

Seven bills geared toward helping municipalities regulate takeovers were proposed in Connecticut’s state legislature in January 2025 alone. State Sen. Paul Cicarella, a ranking member of the Senate Public Safety Committee, introduced Senate Bill 494 on Jan. 10. The bill calls for a program to provide grants to local law enforcement efforts dealing with street takeovers, authorization for municipalities to “destroy” seized all-terrain vehicles and off-road motorbikes and increased penalties for individuals who participate in takeovers. 

“There needs to be some kind of action to deter this from happening,” Cicarella said. “It’s a bipartisan thing.”

Cicarella said that increased penalties related to street takeovers could include repercussions for people that attend or film takeovers, even if they did not operate a vehicle.

A corresponding bill that unanimously passed the State House chamber in April gave rise to concerns over what such added repercussions could entail. In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, Deborah Del Prete Sullivan of the Office of Chief Public Defender opposed parts of the bill, explaining that the increased punishments they promised would be overly punitive.

“The bill subjects anyone involved or merely present at such an event, including innocent bystanders, to a mandatory minimum sentence AND a fine, in addition to their license being revoked,” Sullivan wrote. “As stated, the bill as drafted, treats persons substantially harsher for their limited role at this event when compared to persons convicted of misdemeanor offenses, including those which result in bodily injury.”

The Connecticut state legislature began its 2025 session on Jan. 8.