is a 2021, I believe, Hellcat uh Durango. This car is pieced together from several different stolen cars. Uh the engine, the frame, the body, they're all from different cars. And so, for that reason, this car is not street legal and cannot be put back out on the street. Uh we did considering consider how to sell some of those parts, but because of the the nature of the way that car is assembled, uh that's not going to be a fiscally responsible u avenue. So, as a as a notice to everyone, we are going to be crushing this car today. Um and we want this to be symbolic to people who are out here doing this street racing, understanding that we will take your car. uh whether it's us seizing it by the ordinance, which just so you to give you some uh some numbers, uh so far we've seized 52 cars to date for this year. And last year we seized uh uh 70 total and 62 in in 2023 and we seized we've seized a total of 167 cars under this ordinance. So that's that's very important to understand uh that that work is being done and we we've effectively put a stop to this. I mean, uh, we still have issues that pop up, but, uh, you all have seen, the public has seen that we don't have the issues that we had just a year ago. Um, so we can seize these cars for up to 6 months and then there's a fine uh, after that. And normally when we tow cars, when we seize cars, uh, once that car is released, this does not include victim's cars, but once that car is released, uh, the owner has 45 days to come and claim it. And so when they don't, we ultimately take possession of those cars and they're either put up for auction. So that's revenue returned back to the police department to the city to do the the work that we need to do, which I would have loved to thrown this car in the fleet if it were street legal. Um, but uh the other thing that we do is we end up scrapping them for recycling. And so far out of street racing cars, we have auctioned off four U street racing cars, but we have not taken any into our fleet. So, as I said, this is a car that's assembled out of many different parts. So, we will not be able to sell or use this car in our fleet. But again, just to reemphasize, this is a message to people who want to go out here and participate in this dangerous behavior that we are not going to tolerate it on the streets of Louisville. And with that, I will turn it over to Mayor Craig Craig Greenberg, who will be the one that will uh press the button and get this kicked off. Mayor, >> thank you. Give me your remote. I'll just leave that the remote on here. It's on your pants. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good afternoon. It's great to be here with the chief today. Thank you very much to our traffic officers and other LMPD officers who are doing such important work every day to keep our community safe. Every person, every family in every corner of our city deserves to feel safe and be safe. And that's why Chief Humphrey and I are working so hard every day to create a safer city through collaboration, innovation, enforcement, and reform. And while we still have work to do, we are on the right track. As you just heard, homicides, shootings, carjackings, and more are all down. Still, we need to do more, and that's why we're here today. Our streets should be safe for everyone. Whether you're driving to work, walking your dog, or simply enjoying time with your families and friends. That's why when we hear about illegal street racing, street racing, when we hear about street takeovers in any part of our city, LMPD shows up and shuts it down. We've seen street races in our community reach over 120 miles per hour and have dangerous, even fatal consequences. The family of Myrtle Whacker will soon be mourning the one-year anniversary of her tragic death when she was killed by illegal street racers on October 25th, a year ago. Street racing is reckless. It's dangerous and it's completely unacceptable in Louisville, Kentucky. Again, that is why LMPD shows up and shuts it down. As you just heard, last year we took more illegal street racing cars off our streets than at any year in our city's history. It's a reflection of our commitment to protecting lives and restoring peace in our neighborhoods. And it's working. Thanks to this increased enforcement and community vigilance, illegal street racing in Louisville is down significantly. And that means there are significantly fewer chances for tragedy, fewer nights disrupted by squealing tires and roaring engines. And most importantly, more peace for the families of Louisville. Today, we're sending a clear message, as we work to do every day. Louisville will not tolerate behavior that puts our people, our families at risk. So, we will continue to use every tool that we have to protect our community and make Louisville safer, stronger, and healthier. This vehicle that we're crushing today was seized by LMPD. It's a Frankenstein car put together by many different parts. This vehicle could not be auctioned off. It's not legal to be ever used on our streets again. Same goes for its parts. For anyone who's thinking about street racing in Louisville, think again. You are not welcome here. We will not let you put lives at risk. We will seize your car and if it's not legal for the streets, we will crush it. Heat Heat up here. Heat up here. Heat up here. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat up here. I think it sends a message. You're not going to get your car back if you participate in this type of behavior. Um it's it's a weird dynamic sometimes uh that people are less afraid of arrest and prosecution than they are of having their cars taken away from them. And so I think it's it was a huge plus for us uh to have that ordinance passed that allows us to seize cars for up to 6 months because that's ultimately what people don't want is they don't want to lose their car. And so uh I think that's why you've seen the success and the the drop in numbers, our ability to enforce it. >> Can you tell us more about this car, Chief, and and the people that were involved with it? >> So this is a the question was more about this car and the people involved in it. It's really actually a convoluted story because the uh owner of the car, I believe, was not prosecuted because he did not know originally that it was the product of a bunch of different stolen parts. And this car was seized um ultimately at Street Ride Nationals last year. Uh officers had identified it previously being involved in street racing, not necessarily by this owner. Um and they they identified it, was able to go get it while it was parked and nobody was around. So that's why there's not a any type of prosecution that came in conjunction with it. >> Is there any concern for people that they could potentially be buying a car like that that has a bunch of stolen parts and it could be seized? >> So the question is uh about concern for individuals who might be buying cars that are of stolen parts and and generally that does not happen. Um and I don't know how that purchase took place but that is part of what happens when cars are insured and registered with each state. That's part of the reason why there are regulations like that is to make sure that people are getting cars that are legally purchased, not stolen, as well as safe for the road. >> You got plans to crush anymore? The >> question is, do we have plans to crush anymore? Uh, we're going to crush all of them that meet this meet the criteria for us to be able to crush and if something changes in the legislation that allows us to do it more, we'll do that. But in all honesty, you know, most of these cars are pretty nice. I I would rather seize them and put them in our fleet or sell them to the public so that we can use those those resources and in enforcement actions. >> How often does this happen? >> Uh I don't have the exact stats on how often we crush cars or how many cars we crush, but we we both auction cars and and recycle cars every two weeks. Um and we can get you the numbers on how many we've we've done so far this year. >> So what becomes of it now? So this car will will be uh will go on to recycling. All of these cars that are crushed are ultimately recycled and sold for scrap to be reused. >> Can you um clarify how much street racing do you have numbers as far as how much is down or how to show that? >> Yeah, our numbers uh as far as how much street racing is down is about 40% year year to date uh from previous years. and we'll get you those exact numbers of how many cars we've seized. Um it's a little bit harder to get how many street racing events have happened. Um but as far as the number of seizures, which really correlates with the number of events, um particularly because we have paid attention to this stuff and we are being able to get resources there for enforcement action fairly quickly when these pop up. Um but they have significantly dropped and I think the public sees that. uh while it's still annoying, we don't have the same level of issue that we had in years past. >> Would you like to see that state law passed this coming year to make it easier to to do this? >> So, the question was about the state law being passed to make it easier to do this. I am all about uh any legislative actions that can help us keep the community safer. And so, if if that can contribute to it, I'm I'm very supportive of it. >> Anything else? >> How were you tipped off to this? How do how do we know that it's had all these parts from all across the country? >> So the question was how do we know that had all these parts all across the country? So um anytime these cars come in after we tow a car so it was towed through investigative means they were able to identify this car, locate it and tow it um and then they they run routine checks on it and when the VIN numbers aren't matching up between the engine and the and the car and stuff like that. And so that's a that's a red flag right away. And so every car that we tow, we check for stolen to start off with. And so I'm not exactly sure how they ascertain that, but usually when the VIN numbers on different parts of the car don't match, it's what the FBI calls a clue. >> Are we seeing this more often? Like I think the engines from what Michigan or something is, >> right? The And as far as seeing it more often, I don't I don't think it's something that we're seeing more or less often or I can't give you that information right now. Um, but this is not a new problem. This goes back to the beginning of motor vehicles in the United States of people peacemealing cars together and people stealing cars. So, um, and then people racing cars, you know, that goes way back. So all