LAPD Task Force updates city council on street racing crackdown

(FOX 11) - LAPD's new chief is taking a new approach to cracking down on illegal street racing.

On Tuesday representatives of a multi-agency task force updated the city council on its progress and plans to get tougher.

Usually city council hearings aren't too emotional, rather more factual and dry, but today was different.

It was a meeting to discuss support for and progress made by a regional street racing task force, the LAPD, Sheriff's, CHP and other agencies, in a coordinated crack down on street racing and so called street takeovers, along with an emphasis on the danger, and promotion of legal alternatives at race tracks in places like Fontana, Irwindale, and Rosamond.

It's a problem FOX 11 has done numerous stories on over the years.

The danger in the accidents that often accompany the racing , such as the one that took the life of a 16-year-old girl, Valentina, five years ago, or 19-year-old Michelle more recently.

Their parents were at the meeting today poignant reminders of the what can go wrong.

''We need tougher laws, police can only do what they can do '' said Lili Trujillo, Valentina's mom.

She started an organization called streetracingkills.org, whose mission, bottom line, is to save lives.

Too late for her daughter or Michelle, not for others.

Street takeovers make look cool, they're not.