CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Street takeovers are continuing to pop up in the Queen City. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police issued 13 citations, and 11 cars were seized in one weekend, but officers say the incident numbers are improving.  

“The height was hundreds of vehicles, and we’ve seen that activity has dropped,” CMPD Lt. Kevin Petrius said. “Not only in the number of vehicles, but also the number of incidents and number of events that were responding to.”  

People are shutting down streets to perform stunts and race. Some of the hot spots from last weekend include Statesville Avenue, West Boulevard, Nations Ford Road, West Arrowwood Road and Wilkinson Boulevard.  

“We have people in strategic locations to be able to identify when these kickoff,” Lt. Petrius said. “We also received 911 calls about these things, which is something that we appreciate.”  

Street takeovers or sideshows happen across the country. In Kansas City, Missouri leaders are getting creative to stop the shows.  

“We thought of this idea to cut grooves in the pavement about an inch deep,” KCMO City Manager Brian Platt said. “So, it’s harder for people to do a burnout or to move a car in a direction other than in the direction of travel.”  

Platt says police continue enforcement, but the city is taking it a step further.  

“Our residents and our visitors are very happy to see that we’re taking very visible concrete steps,” Platt said. “Enforcement only goes gets you so far and this is a great way for us to permanently modify intersections to prevent this kind of thing.”  

In North Carolina, a new law kicks in Dec. 1 that will specifically criminalize street takeovers. Police say people are coming from out of town to host such events.  

“We’re hoping that this limits the number of people that are going to come into this city to do that activity and give us additional measures to be able to hold people accountable if they do,” Petrius said.