New RAID team will target street racing, impaired driving
Las Vegas police announced a new team Tuesday that will focus on investigating impaired driving and street racing.
The Racing Apprehension and Intervention Detail, also called RAID, will be composed of traffic officers who will investigate reckless driving, speeding, impaired driving and street racing.
Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Daryl Rhoads, administrative lieutenant for the agency’s traffic bureau, called the dangerous driving “a plague” that has led to a record number of traffic fatalities in the past decade.
Las Vegas police were awarded $95,000 from the state in 2021 for a speed and reckless driving enforcement project. In an October interview with the Review-Journal, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo announced that Metro was allocating one officer to investigate street racing full time.
“We have heard your frustrations,” Sgt. Russell Bybee said in a video announcing RAID. “We are also frustrated.”
Bybee said street racing often involves other major crimes, like illegal shootings, and lately he has seen more juveniles taking parents’ vehicles to race. He said officers plan to issue citations to participants caught street racing.
Officer Mike Thiele discussed the intervention aspect, which will involve officers visiting everyone convicted of a second DUI offense within seven years to try to stop the behavior.
“We don’t want them to become a felon,” he said. “Your third DUI in seven years in the state of Nevada, you become a felon.”
Residents may make reports of traffic offenses to Metro’s new email address, RAID@lvmpd.com.
Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.