Brakes on: Waikato police impound 7 boy racer vehicles, promise clampdown

A vehicle does a burnout on Cambridge Rd earlier this month after the funeral of a Te Awamutu man. Photo / Dean Taylor

Waikato police say they will continue to target illegal boy racer activity and have teamed up with a neighbouring district to help combat problems.

A section of Cambridge Rd, Te Awamutu, was left covered in skid marks after the funeral of 21-year-old Kyle Ross who was killed in a crash at Gordonton last month.

Many of Ross's friends were photographed doing burn outs and driving dangerously, which left a large amount of damage to the road and other motorists fearing for their safety as they moved to the wake near Gleneagles Drive on March 3.

Police were called and three vehicles were impounded.

Waikato road policing manager Inspector Jeff Penno said four more vehicles had since been impounded with their owners now facing action in the Te Awamutu District Court.

He said they were aware of growing concern from locals since the funeral and they had been working to try and prevent it from happening.

They had an investigator dedicated full time to the issue.

However, they were investigating incidents which had occurred he said boy racers would start seeing "a number of tactics" never previously been used by police before.

Penno said for obvious operational reasons he couldn't disclose the tactics and while they were actively trying to prevent it, they encouraged members of the public to continue to send them footage - if it was safe to capture - of it happening so they could chase it up.

Boy racers caused serious damage to Cambridge Rd after the funeral of Te Awamutu man Kyle Ross. Photo / Dean Taylor

"We're always reviewing our tactics and always listening to the public's concerns. We have always responsive to our locals and mayors and we are constantly managing our demand with our resources and applying tactics that will prevent this behaviour."

Police had strong legislative force to react to situations which blow out of control.

"If these people are going to engage in that anti social activity and do significant damage to our roading infrastructure and annoy the public then we will certainly be taking strong enforcement action."

"These burn outs do massive damage to the roads and that costs every taxpayer.

"But we need the intelligence pictures, we need people to tell us where they're seeing it so we can best formulate a tactical response."

Vehicles that get impounded were locked up for 28 days.

The first of eventually seven vehicles is about to be removed after being impounded for doing burnouts.

Given the wide reach of boy racers, Waikato police would be working with neighbouring police districts.

"We're working with neighbouring districts and we're just going to do some different stuff to ensure that we are best impacting this type of anti social behaviour."

A key factor was prevention and the most effective way of doing that was to upset the environment which attracted boy racers in the first place.

"Prevention is the model we police by and in a lot of cases we need to do crime prevention and change the environment to ensure this doesn't occur.

"Changing the whole roading infrastructure including putting up barriers.

"Just something that makes it unattractive or unusable for that criminal activity."

Western Waikato Area Commander Inspector Will Loughrin commented on Facebook that "boy racer activity was something that really affects local communities' quality of life and wellbeing".

"The Te Awamutu community have supported police by providing images and video of a recent incident, resulting in seven vehicles subsequently being impounded.

A vehicle is loaded and taken away after the incident on March 3. Photo / Waikato police

"Police can act on incidents of boy racer activity after the fact, including impounding vehicles. Photos and videos are great, but only if they can be taken safely. Members of the public should not put themselves at risk.

"Even times, dates and places are critical for police to complete an Intelligence picture to enable us to best respond."

Loughrin said community meetings in the Western Waikato district were currently being organised to kick off next month.

He hoped it would give concerned residents a chance to provide feedback.

"Community feedback helps ensure police get our tactics right to so that everyone feels safe and is safe at home, work and when out in their communities."