Emergency response needed for ATV's terroizing Atlanta streets, parks and neighborhoods (Marietta: law, association)

[Atlwarrior]

Will it take a kid or adult getting killed from ATV's as they ride through our parks, roads, and interstates before law official get serious. These ATV riders are running red lights, and are using social media to announce before hand where they will gather. I recently saw about 200 ATV's riding downtown interstate 85 last week. I heard the city of Atlanta police really can't do anything, but Georgia Highway Patrol can. How is your neighborhood association working with the police? How can we take our roads back Atlanta before a death of a innocent person occur?

[tikigod311]

They went after some of the guys recently and caught some of them.

I find it hard to believe they can't use cameras and helicopters to at least make life suck for these scumbags that are doing this. They all need a wack over the head with a baseball bat.

[jsvh]

They got some last round as tiki noted. They also have some video of others that they have rewards for.

The main challenge is APD (and many other police departments) have policies that discourage high-speed chases as they just result in more death and destruction.

But I hope to see some strategies from APD to deal with this next time it happens.

[PKCorey]

You can only do so much without putting the public at risk.

Same issue, every summer in Baltimore and the riders know the police can't chase them so they antagonize them.

What can the police do? They might catch one or two but the majority ride off.

[ATLTJL]

I've heard some rumblings about this as far as motorcycles go, but ATVs? How do they even ride on interstates? And how could they not be caught? ATVs don't have a very high top speed, do they?

[JMatl]

I saw this on the news the other night, and was pretty shocked. I had no idea this was even going on here.

There was a clip of dozens of ATV's on the Connector taking up 3 lanes, and I'm sure some here saw the video of the guys pulled over on Marietta Street jumping up and down on the police car.

I've not seen this on the NE side.

[netdragon]

Seen them on a few occasion at Pittman Park (and coming to/fro) while around my investment property and gotta say the noise and tearing up of the park is what bugs me the most. I can handle the rest but they really do need to be registered, with plates and all and there needs to be some noise ordinance rules for them (size of groups, times of day, etc) along with being able to hit anyone with civil fines for public property destruction if they really tear up grass on park property in a way that seems excessive.

I did see police pull some of them over once, and that was cool. However, I don't think targeting a few like that will do the job. It's gotta be specifically addressed by the city and then the media needs to trumpet the rules until every ATV driver has heard it through osmosis.

[Tryska]

Sad to say - it probably will take a rider getting killed. apparently Laws, riding with respect, and self-preservation don't seem to matter.

So they need to learn what people who ride legit street-legal motorcycles learn. YOU don't win when you tangle with a car.