Street racing crackdown in DeKalb County is working, police say

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Police say a crackdown to get dangerous drivers off the streets is working.

DeKalb County police began targeting street racers after a car crashed into a business last month.

Channel 2's Steve Gehlbach was the first reporter there that morning and has been going back each weekend to the same spot the racers gather, usually on Sunday nights into Monday.

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Three years ago, Gehlbach remembers covering the death of three children in one car hit by a pair of street racers just up the road.

Last month, a car came off the road and smashed through a wall into an auto repair shop in the area.

[READ: ‘We're not going to put up with it anymore:' Police determined to end street racing in metro]

Since then, the racers are gone.

All was quiet this weekend.

“They saw us in force, saw another 20 to 30 units out there. Again, we’re going to be on this as long as the street racers are out there,” DeKalb Police Lt. John Germano said.

There was another tragedy less than a week after the first sting operation.

A crash at the intersection on Moreland Avenue took the life of one driver.

The other, Omar Ramirez-Fernandez, was charged with racing, reckless driving and vehicular homicide.

However, DeKalb County police say their efforts, with help from Atlanta police, are working so far and that they have had no reports that the racers have just moved somewhere else.

“These street racers need to know that we’re not going anywhere,” Germano said.

Cox Media Group