The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday voted in favor of a new ordinance that allows police to arrest and charge people for being bystanders and livestreaming exhibition driving.

Violators can be fined $500 or spend up to 180 days in jail.

“What the city codified today is actually participation in exhibition driving for those that are not physically behind the wheel,” City Council member Hunter Williams explained after the meeting.

“We’re talking about those that are both passengers in the vehicles; we’re talking about those that organize an event, plan it and put it together. We’re talking about those that are videotaping it and putting it on social media, and those spectators that are participating passively in it. One thing we have seen in regard to street racing and exhibition driving is there are a lot of people participating in the event that are not the individual that is physically behind the wheel.”

The Birmingham City Council voted in favor of an ordinance “to prohibit loitering, remaining, or wandering about in a public place for the purpose of participating as an organizer or spectator in any exhibition driving or street racing activity on the public highways of the City of Birmingham.”

That widens potential criminal behavior out to anyone attending illegal street racing.

“What we wanted to do is put something with teeth in it, where those that are passively participating in it, or somewhat actively participating in it, by planning the event, or livestreaming it to social media so that it garners a crowd of people, and furthers the amount of people that are participating at that immediate time in exhibition driving, where we can criminalize that,” Williams said.

“What this does is it allows the police department to assess them, either a citation of $500, or arrest them, where they will potentially spend up to 180 days in jail,” Williams said.

“But really what we wanted to do is give our enforcement team more options, more tools in their toolbox, to help combat this exhibition driving and street racing that has really been a problem since Covid in the City of Birmingham.”

The city has tried different approaches, and this will give police more latitude in enforcement, he said.

“The mayor’s Operation Knight Rider has been a huge success and it’s been widely publicized, the amount of arrests, vehicles seized, narcotics and guns seized with that operation. One thing that we struggled with is enforcement with those that are not behind the wheel,” Williams said.

“We have those that are organizing the event, that are posting on social media, for a meet-up, for exhibition driving. We have those that are live-streaming it, and we have those passive participants that are actually a lot of times the ones getting hurt as they stand out and watch and observe this exhibition driving on Birmingham streets.”

Someone walking their dog on a sidewalk would not be subject to arrest, for example, Williams said.

It targets organizers of street racing events and those who livestream them, if they are caught in the act by police, Williams said.

“It will be up to Birmingham Police Department to enforce,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of confusion when it comes to is someone participating in street racing or is it a citizen that happens to be caught in a situation where a street racing event came up where they were walking on a city street. The police officer has to observe this individual passively participating.”