More than 300 vehicles rolled into Brockton over Halloween weekend for illegal car meet-ups and street takeovers, and police say the enforcement response turned up two loaded firearms and multiple arrests. The largest single gathering packed more than 150 vehicles near a Torrey Street shopping plaza, where officers say the guns were recovered during a traffic stop early Saturday morning.
According to the Newport Dispatch, the Brockton Police Department said the vehicle count topped 300 for the weekend's gatherings. The firearms seizure near the Torrey Street plaza came as officers and detectives, including members of the department's Strategic Crime Reduction Unit, ran proactive enforcement specifically targeting the crowds, as reported by turnto10.com.
Two people, one from Dighton and one from Mansfield, were arrested on gun charges tied to that stop, police said. Neither the specific charges nor the individuals' names have been released, and the station's report does not specify a case status beyond the arrests themselves.
Saturday Night Brought More Disruptions
The enforcement didn't stop once the Torrey Street crowd was broken up. Officers continued working through Saturday night, disrupting additional car meet-ups before they could swell into larger gatherings, per the same account.
Over the course of the weekend, Brockton police conducted dozens of traffic stops, issued numerous citations, towed several vehicles, and made multiple arrests connected to the gatherings, the department said. In a statement, police said their efforts to address illegal street takeovers, dangerous driving, and gun violence would continue.
Part of a Wider Massachusetts Problem
Brockton's Halloween weekend crackdown lands amid a broader statewide push against street takeovers, a phenomenon the Boston Globe described as a national problem accelerated by social media during the pandemic. The Globe reported that state and local agencies had worked together one weekend prior to disrupt unruly gatherings being planned online.
During that earlier statewide effort, Governor Maura Healey said officers issued 232 civil citations, 74 warnings and 20 criminal summonses, resulting in seven arrests, 15 vehicles towed, two vehicles seized and the recovery of a stolen car, the Globe reported. Healey also announced $14 million in grants to support traffic enforcement and stop illegal activity.
The stakes in these gatherings aren't only measured in citations. Brockton Police Chief Brenda Perez told the Globe that one of the department's officers was injured during a recent gathering, and officials said a takeover in Fall River drew about 200 people, shut down a road and forced an ambulance to reroute. Separately, Boston 25 News reported that a police operation targeting street crime in Brockton had already netted 35 arrests.
