Philadelphia Police Cracking Down on ATVs and Dirt Bikes

Police in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, say they’ve confiscated 149 dirt bikes and ATVs this year. Twenty-three of those confiscations, or 15 percent, came in just two days earlier this month, 60 confiscations since the beginning of September. Police say the crackdown is not due to an incident on a Philly street last week, when a guy on a motorcycle went berserk on a woman in a car, climbing on the car roof, smashing the back window, then pulling a gun on the woman before headbutting her. But the altercation is helping keep police on the case.

There are a few things to note here. First, the alleged perpetrator, a chap named Cody Heron, has been put in jail with bond set at 10 percent of $2.5 million. Second, he wasn’t on a dirt bike nor an ATV, but a street-legal motorcycle with a plate. He was riding with a group that included dirt bikes and ATVs though.

Second, it should come as no surprise that non-street-legal vehicles are not legal to ride on Philadelphia streets, as has been the case since 2012. The law doesn’t stop riders from hitting the roads whenever they want. Supposedly, hometown rapper Meek Mill began to blow up the scene and his career with his video “Ima Boss,” which featured a bunch of riders on city streets, not a license plate in sight. Even after Mill became a multiplatinum artist, he kept up with the bikes, saying, “That’s my number one thing I love to do.”

Third, local police are constrained by department policy that “makes it illegal to chase a vehicle that’s only committing a moving violation.” The department has a dedicated ATV detail, but it’s underfunded “and so far has been fairly ineffective,” all of which makes random capture difficult. It’s incidents like the one last week, or another from 2014, or another from 2021, which lead to specific enforcement and sting operations.

Police can’t run sting operations indefinitely, though, so no one is sure how much will change nor when it will change. City authorities have been in discussions for a few years about creating a park where dirt bikes and ATVs can whoop it up legally. However, the first roadblock to such a park is also the most ironic: The question, “How will the riders get there?”

As for Heron, his lawyer issued a statement to say, “The video shared by the media is obviously disturbing. However: Our investigation has revealed that it is only a portion of a much lengthier incident that when viewed in its entirety casts Mr. Heron in a significantly different light. By way of further information, Mr. Heron has never been in trouble a single day in his life. He is lawfully permitted to carry a concealed firearm and works six days a week. We are looking forward to presenting a clearer picture as to who Mr. Heron is at upcoming court hearings.”

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