St. Paul committee weighs ordinance to ban 'exhibition driving' after repeat gatherings at Harriet Island

St. Paul City Council members and public safety staff discussed pursuing a city ordinance to ban “exhibition driving”—including burnouts, donuts, drifting and street takeovers—after repeated gatherings and safety complaints at Harriet Island and near Raspberry Island.

The committee heard from City policy staff, Commander Jeremy Ellison of the Saint Paul Police Department and outside guests from Blaine and a neighboring Rapids city on how local ordinances, permits and enforcement practices have been used elsewhere to reduce the events and attendant dangers.

Council staff described exhibition driving as a distinct, social-media-fueled form of aggressive driving that turns roadways and parking lots into “impromptu arenas” for risky stunts and large crowds. “Exhibition driving is defined as a particularly dangerous form of aggressive driving that can include street racing, speed demonstration, burnouts, donuts, drifting, and street takeovers,” the presenter said.

Commander Jeremy Ellison, commander of the Traffic and Pedestrian Safety Unit, told the committee that St. Paul saw a rapid escalation of complaints in 2025 around Harriet Island, including engine revving, burnouts, crowded parking lots and traffic congestion. He said Parks and Recreation shortened park hours (from 11 p.m. to 10 p.m.) and Public Works posted traffic controls such as a no-left-turn sign at West Side Flats and Island Road; scooter vendors were asked to reduce speeds. Ellison said enforcement lowered incidents where officers made repeated patrols and issued citations: “If somebody squeals their tires, if they're driving unreasonably fast, it's really easy for our officers to articulate why they're citing that person.”

Ellison and guests emphasized limits of current state law. Staff noted Minnesota has a reckless driving statute (chapter 169) and other equipment-level citations, but no single state statute labeled for “exhibition driving,” leaving cities to consider ordinance language that more directly targets the conduct or the event. Staff also described policy options used elsewhere, including owner-liability provisions and vehicle seizure authority cited in Seattle's ordinance and Washington state law.

David Brody, a city attorney from the guest Rapids jurisdiction, said his city rewrote local language into several clauses intended to capture general dangerous driving, large gatherings in parking lots or parks, street racing and noise violations, plus a narrower spectator/aiding-and-abetting clause. Brody said his city has issued 12 citations under its ordinance over two years and described the change as adding tools to officers’ toolkits rather than a sole cure: “We just wanted to give as many tools as possible to address it.” He also cautioned that declines in activity sometimes reflected multiple factors, including coordinated enforcement, not only the ordinance.

Captain Mike Rigg of the Blaine Police Department described Blaine’s ordinance and its enforcement results. Blaine created language that explicitly prohibits exhibition driving and also makes attending and facilitating those events an enforcement trigger; the city pairs the ordinance with an education-and-permit program for legitimate car shows. Rigg said Blaine’s traffic unit has two traffic officers for daytime duties, and the city combined public education, permitting and visible enforcement to stop large, recurring gatherings: “We told all of them that this was no longer gonna be tolerated within our city, that there is gonna be enforcement action taken.”

Rigg described a decisive early enforcement action in which an officer used a pursuit intervention technique (a PIT maneuver) on a fleeing vehicle in a largely empty area, then arrested the driver. He said that strong, visible initial enforcement combined with outreach produced a sharp drop in repeat gatherings. Rigg also described common collateral criminal concerns at large gatherings elsewhere—fights, weapons and impaired driving—and said coordinated regional enforcement and intelligence-sharing were important.

Committee members asked about practical enforcement limits. Ellison and the guest cities said staffing constraints are real: officers often cover these incidents on overtime, and St. Paul currently lacks a full-time traffic unit. Both guests recommended having an ordinance as a preventive tool that allows officers to shut down gatherings before they grow, and pairing enforcement with a permit process for legitimate, organized car shows.

Several council members raised civil-rights and equity concerns, urging caution about discretionary enforcement and recommending community partner outreach before advancing an ordinance. “When we have criminalized behavior related to cars before, we have seen patterns of racially disparate enforcement,” Council Member Coleman said, urging robust training, community input and an emphasis on education before broader criminal penalties are used.

No ordinance was proposed or voted on at the meeting. The committee agreed to continue studying options, including possible ordinance language, owner-liability approaches, permit requirements for organized events, spectator/aiding-and-abetting provisions and possible follow-up at the Public Safety Committee.

The discussion combined immediate enforcement details—park-hour changes, signage, citations—with longer-term policy choices including whether to draft a city ordinance, retain a focus on permits and education, or pursue state-level statutory change to fill perceived legal gaps.