Roll Call: Communities must take steps to prevent teen takeovers

By now, you’ve probably heard of or even experienced the phenomenon of teen takeovers, sometimes called street takeovers.

In fact, we are increasingly witnessing teen takeovers in our communities, where large groups of young people gather in cars and typically take over an intersection or other location such as downtown areas, pools or public events.

Recent takeovers have taken place in downtown Chicago, Naperville and, most recently, Glen Ellyn.

The teen takeover that occurred at Glen Ellyn’s Sunset Pool received significant media attention and sparked outrage not only from Glen Ellyn residents but from other individuals who were visiting the pool that day.

If you can imagine, there were many families there with children, spending time at the pool and enjoying a summer day, when a disruption took place involving 200 to 300 people took place.

Some people were seen entering without paying, while others were smoking cannabis, consuming alcohol in violation of the park district’s ordinances, and igniting illegal fireworks, authorities said.

What can be done to prevent these teen takeovers? Let’s start by defining what this trend is: a large gathering of teens that is publicized and organized on social media and later broadcast as a TikTok video.

Preventing these takeovers is a complicated process, especially for suburban police agencies. That’s because most departments lack the workforce, technical expertise or data-gathering infrastructure to monitor this type of takeover 24/7 on social media.

But I believe that police departments and the community can take steps toward either preventing or controlling teen takeovers by increasing security at public events and public gatherings.

For example, there should be a coordinated response already in place, and your police department should work with neighboring agencies to execute an appropriate response when a takeover happens.

Communities should take advantage of community reporting. Publicize what the police department is doing to prevent and respond to these disturbances. Nothing should be held back.

Public venues should close immediately or close early upon hearing of any social media posts that may target their venue. Enforcement is necessary.

Most of the charges that result from these teen takeovers are either local ordinance tickets or misdemeanors. However, when individuals are attacked, assaulted or battered, these actions must result in felony charges.

Furthermore, police should investigate towing all vehicles used in the takeovers and seize any vehicles used during these unlawful actions. If cars are used to go to the location or the venue where an illegal activity is taking place, there should be a minimum towing fine of $2,000 plus storage fees.

Communities in Florida have had remarkable success towing vehicles and impounding them to reduce takeovers.

We also need to call these events what they are. These are teen takeovers of public spaces that are 100% illegal. These are not meetups, get-togethers or kids blowing off steam. These takeovers are planned, coordinated and promoted via social media.

One avenue that police agencies do not typically explore is holding social media platforms accountable. Police departments should send a letter to the leading social media platforms requesting that they enforce their own rules, which means removing posts that promote illegal activity and demonetizing such posts.

Finally, when arrests or citations are issued, both should be publicized by the police department. Most teen takeovers will involve teens under 18 whose names cannot be released. However, the names, hometowns and details of arrest for anyone over 18 should be released, including mugshots. This type of initiative-taking policing is necessary to get a handle on these takeovers.

As I stated earlier, these aren’t “let’s just go to the pool and have a fun day.” These takeovers are disruptive, reckless and illegal, causing damage and harm at almost every location where they occur.

Law-abiding citizens enjoying the day with their families should not be the victims. These are the residents who support the community and the police force, and we need to help them. Our public spaces must not be taken over by the reckless and misguided actions of a few.

• Tom Weitzel is the former chief of the Riverside Police Department and spent 37 years in law enforcement. He can be reached at tqweitzel@outlook.com. Follow him on X at @chiefweitzel or TikTok at tiktok.com/@chiefweitzel.