Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’: Council May OK Stiff Fines for Too Many Rides on Street

Cruising motorists who clog traffic along Los Angeles streets will drive off with expensive tickets if they pass the same point more than three times in a two-hour period, the City Council tentatively decided Wednesday.

The anti-cruising ordinance, which won the council’s unanimous approval, calls for a $100 fine for a first offense and increasing penalties of up to $250 for subsequent citations, the city attorney’s office said.

Drivers could be cited only after the Police Department had declared an area congested, posted signs telling of the penalties and issued written warning cards to circling drivers, according to the ordinance drafted by Councilman Richard Alatorre. A final vote on the matter will be taken next week.

The ordinance is meant to stem burgeoning outbreaks of violence among cruisers throughout the city, Los Angeles Police Capt. Patrick McKinley said.

“It’s definitely not Gidget and Moondoggie,” McKinley said, referring to the more saccharine renditions of cruising common to television. “They’re creating numerous problems.”

In Hollenbeck Division where he works, McKinley said, cruisers have not only tied up local thoroughfares but have spilled over into nearby neighborhoods, where “they just take over.”

“They park all across the streets. They absolutely terrorize neighbors,” McKinley said.

The Police Department supported the ordinance in the hope that it will allow them to clamp down on cruising with little expense and relatively few officers. Now, officers combat cruising by impounding cars or blocking streets, options that require a heavy police presence on weekend nights, when the department’s resources are exhausted by criminal activity.

Approval of the anti-cruising ordinance came despite initial concerns that it might give potentially abusive powers to the police.

“It’s not something done to provide for abuse by the Police Department,” Alatorre said. “It is, I believe, a fair way to deal with a growing problem.”

Councilman Joel Wachs said he had some concern about the anti-cruising ordinance.

“We keep telling kids what they can’t do and don’t provide meaningful things for them to do,” he said.

But Wachs ultimately voted for the ordinance, calling it a police “tool . . . if it is employed with discretion and not with abusive intent.”

“If it’s really being abused, I’m sure we’re going to hear about it,” he said.

The ordinance includes a one-year “sunset” provision, which means it would be evaluated after a year and the council would have to vote to retain it.

McKinley said department officials will know by then whether the citation process has curbed cruising.