Baltimore dirt bike owners may be forced to lock up their vehicles, or face seizures by police.
A bill to be introduced at tonight?s City Council meeting would require residents who own dirt bikes and unregistered motorcycles ? illegal to operate but not own in the city? to “immobilize” them.
The bill, sponsored by the Dixon administration, would make it illegal not to have either an ignition lock or wheel clamp on dirt bikes to prevent the vehicle from being ridden.
The measure would allow police to seize any of the vehicles not properly secured, Dixon spokesman Sterling Clifford said.
“The bill will require them to be immobile while they are in the city. It gives us another tool for addressing dirt bikes,” he said.
The bill also would prevent owners from repurchasing seized dirt bikes, a restriction sponsors said was necessary to keep drug dealers from buying the bikes back.
“What typically happens when the police seize these bikes [particularly from drug runners] is that the people who forfeited the bikes show up at auction and just buy it right back. This law outlaws that practice,” said Shaun Adamec, spokesman for City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who also supports the bill.
Dirt bikes have been a source of controversy in Baltimore, with police and city leaders labeling them as hazards operated by reckless teens.
Last year, 7-year-old Gerard Mungo Jr. was arrested for allegedly sitting on a dirt bike. The arrest embroiled the police department in controversy and raised questions about the legality of sitting on a dirt bike with the ignition off. Gerard was released without being charged.
In the wake of the controversy, City Councilman Jack Young, D-District 12, proposed building a city-owned dirt bike park, a proposal the administration rebuffed.
“I think in order for us to control all this illegal riding, we need to be stricter,” Young said. “I support the idea.”
