Police in Benicia, California, recently impounded a Nissan 370Z parked in a driveway one day after the vehicle was allegedly “involved in a sideshow.” The police say they were able to place the car at Lake Herman Road in Benicia on the previous morning using a combination of “community cameras” and Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) technology. It’s a reminder that in today’s heavily surveilled world, authorities can effortlessly pursue any road activity that they deem unlawful, whether they’re physically present at the scene or not.
The seized 370Z was referenced in an April 1 Facebook post by the department, detailing two separate incidents described as “sideshows” that Benicia police responded to. The first one involved four vehicles and occurred on a “business site in the Industrial Park.” Authorities called that a “small sideshow”—a word typically reserved for gatherings focused on reckless driving with many spectators, sometimes called “takeovers” when they happen on public streets and intersections. Five subjects, including three drivers, a bystander, and someone on-site with “tires and power tools,” were detained, and that’s the event that led to those three Miatas getting hauled away in the photo below. The majority of comments in response push back on the “sideshow” description, dismissing the drivers’ actions as fooling around on private property in an empty lot, but exactly what the group was up to that night is unknown.
The 370Z is a separate matter; however, like the Miatas, it’s been impounded for 30 days. Also like the situation at the parking lot, police haven’t been specific about what the 370Z was seen doing—simply that it was “involved in a sideshow.” Of course, sideshows can be dangerous to the public and should be stopped for that reason. At the same time, not every instance of spirited or aggressive driving is a sideshow, and Benicia police appear to favor that word to legitimize seizing cars. Whatever happened, in this case, they relied upon ALPRs to apprehend their target…