San Francisco Police Using Drones Investigating Dirt Bikers in Street Takeovers

By Megan Cassidy

Source San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco police are using recently acquired drones to investigate a swarm of dirt bikers who stormed Valencia Street on Sunday evening, popping wheelies and spinning doughnuts as cars and pedestrians attempted to maneuver around them.

The event was one of several incidents involving dozens of motorized bikes and ATVs to disrupt Bay Area neighborhoods throughout the day, including witness reports from Market Street and other areas of San Francisco, on the Bay Bridge and in Oakland.

Sharky Laguana, a San Francisco business owner and member of the city's Homeless Oversight Commission, captured multiple scenes on video Sunday afternoon as he was dining out near the intersection of Valencia and 23rd streets and posted them on X.

"It was legitimately scary to cross the street because you couldn't see them or how fast they were coming in, and they were not stopping for red lights," Laguana said in an interview. "I saw parents scooping their kids up into their arms and running away."

Laguana said police eventually responded and chased away the motorcyclists, prompting cheers from the surrounding crowds. But the bikers kept coming back, he said, and seemed unconcerned with police efforts to disperse them.

"I watched a police car that tried to stop a couple of the motorcyclists by pulling in front of them rapidly," Laguana said. "And the motorcycles were literally going in circles around the police car, pointing at them and laughing, mocking them. They had absolutely no fear of the police whatsoever."

A spokesperson for San Francisco police on Monday said that while officers made no arrests Sunday, they were continuing to investigate after witnessing several of the individuals commit vehicle violations.

"The department has a plan to address this activity, which includes seizing vehicles when possible and conducting follow-up investigations to impound vehicles," said Officer Robert Rueca.

Rueca said officers used drones to help them observe the vehicle violations but declined to provide specific details on when or where the dirt bikes were spotted, citing the open investigations.

San Francisco police purchased a fleet of six drones earlier this year after voters approved Mayor London Breed's Proposition E, which expanded police powers.

Rueca noted that officers have already used drones to investigate suspects on dirt bikes, including a July 26 incident involving car break-ins. This incident, Rueca said, led to an arrest and seizure of the vehicles.

"Although this activity was not limited to San Francisco, the SFPD will diligently investigate these cases when individuals come into our city," Rueca said in a statement.

Rueca said it's unclear whether the dirt bike riders in San Francisco were part of the same groups that were witnessed on and across the Bay Bridge on Sunday.

In most circumstances, San Francisco police policy prohibits officers from engaging in vehicle chases, which have killed hundreds of people throughout the country over the past several years.

Sunday's scenes came almost exactly a year after a caravan of approximately 200 dirt bikes snarled traffic and disrupted communities in and around San Francisco.

A spokesperson for the California Highway Patrol said the agency received reports of a group of motorcyclists slowing traffic on the Bay Bridge at two separate times on Sunday. One began at around 11:15 a.m. when the group was headed eastbound, and the second at around 3:50 p.m. when a group was headed westbound.

No members of the group were arrested by CHP officers, said Officer Mike Andrews.

Andrews said CHP officers attempted to make contact with some of the riders who exited from the West Grand off-ramp but that they discontinued for safety reasons after some of the bikers began driving the wrong way on Oakland city streets.

The incident was separate from another involving a procession of two-wheeled vehicles on the Bay Bridge this weekend, in which about 100 bicyclists took over the lower deck on Saturday afternoon. Two people from this group were detained.

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