Two days after a Chesterfield Township teen led police on a high-octane chase along Woodward Avenue in Royal Oak residents complained to the City Commission on Monday about the noise, aggravation and potential dangers that early cruisers bring to the community.
None of the residents, however, mentioned the incident involving the suspect arrested Saturday evening. Police put out a statement on the chase Monday evening.
The epicenter for early cruisers, and the Woodward Dream Cruise in August, is 13 Mile and Woodward.
At 7:35 p.m. Saturday, a Royal Oak officer monitoring early cruisers spotted the suspect, 17, driving recklessly on Woodward in that area, police said.
The suspect was driving a white Chrysler 300 with a female passenger, 19.
“The officer activated his lights and attempted to stop the vehicle,” Royal Oak police Lt. Richard Millard said in a statement, “but the driver disregarded the signal to pull over and fled away from the officer at a high rate of speed.”
The teen changed directions several times on Woodward as police chased him and headed north of 14 Mile Road into Birmingham.
Birmingham police successfully deployed a tire deflation device near Lincoln Street in their city that flattened the two passenger side tires on the souped-up Chrysler.
Still, the suspect drove more than another mile on the flat tires, weaving through a residential neighborhood before heading south on Woodward, police said.
Police said they arrested him when he finally stopped near Woodward and Normandy Road. The passenger was released and no one was injured.
Police said the suspect is being held at Children’s Village, a county detention center for juvenile offenders.
He faces a charge of third-degree fleeing and eluding, a five-year felony, and his case is being handled in juvenile court.
“We have officers patrolling Woodward,” Millard said Tuesday. “Anytime the weather cooperates in the spring we have more people cruising Woodward.”
Early cruisers typically congregate in business parking lots along the highway when they take a break from the road. Police for over a decade have tried to control them and in the past have issued trespassing tickets to those who crowd in parking lots in cooperation with business owners who object to cruisers being in their lots.
Mayor Michael Fournier said that because of Woodward is a highway state law prohibits police from writing civil infraction tickets for early cruisers gathering unless police have an agreement with business owners who own the lots. A local noise ordinance was used to issue noise violations, but the city got sued over the issue and lost in court, he said.
Ticketing can only be done “within what the state statute allows us to do,” Fournier said.
Several Royal Oak residents who live within hearing distance of Woodward complained to the City Commission on Monday.
“It’s decreasing the quality of my life,” said Becky Valenti who lives a few blocks from Woodward. “I can’t sit or work in my backyard without being frustrated because of the noise on Woodward … We’re going to have to move because it’s so loud.”
Fournier said city officials have been petitioning the city’s representatives in Lansing to change state law so Royal Oak, and other nearby cities, can have a legal means of controlling early cruisers.
“I don’t want you to think we’re just twiddling our thumbs,” Fournier said. “We’re pushing the boundaries of what we can do.”
Lisa Carnegie is another resident weary of the noise of loud engines. She said she realized the city and police were doing everything they can to limit the noise nuisance.
“But we need to do more,” Carnegie said. “I don’t know what it’s going to take. A catastrophe where someone is killed?”