Police in cities across the U.S. aren't worried about ghosts and goblins on this Halloween weekend. They’re prepped for the real horror show they expect — dangerous, disruptive, and lawless street takeovers.
Authorities from the Jersey Shore in the east to suburban Atlanta in the south are establishing curfews for teenagers and bumping up police patrols, with metropolitan areas still reeling from takeovers that have drawn hundreds of teens and young adults and erupted in lawless, urban chaos.
Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith of the National Police Association told Fox News that police departments need to be more proactive on Halloween as street takeovers show no signs of slowing down.
“On Halloween night, I can tell you from experience, our call volume goes up — you know, four or five, six times — because people are calling… because of fireworks,” Brantner Smith said.
Pyrotechnics can play a big role in takeovers involving cars, also known as "side shows" or "meetups."
As Breitbart News has been reporting, street takeovers are not limited to or necessarily organized on social media by teenagers alone, as many other news outlets have incorrectly reported.
Typically, these events feature dystopian, other-worldly controlled chaos as cars burn circles in the middle of intersections with onlookers dangerously close by and others hanging out of the windows and sun roofs of the doughnut-burning cars.
The goal is to create a spectacular late night scene that can then be posted for clicks on social media.
Other types of takeovers, typically dominated by teens, don't feature cars but draw huge crowds in commercial districts where often looting and violence break out.
In Oak Park, Illinois, the chief of police said that the department is trying to prevent a Halloween teen takeover like last year's chaos, Fox reported.
On the 2025 holiday, some 500 teens swarmed downtown Oak Park, where fistfights and gunfire broke out, requiring police to call for help from six neighboring departments, according to a department memo.
Oak Park Chief of Police Shatonya Johnson said her department will be ramping up the number of officers on the Halloween shift as well as deploying several other public safety measures.
Residents in Oak Park's neighboring town of Hyde Park plan to show up themselves on the streets to prevent large gatherings by teenagers.
“What we're really trying to do is establish a critical mass on the street, possibly before the Halloween festivities even start,” said the founder of the community group "ollaBOOration," formed in response to street takeover violence on previous holidays.
He continued, “So, when these large gatherings happen, like we've seen every year, we will already have taken over 53rd Street… We'll be walking up and down in orange shirts and keeping in contact with one another.”
CBS News reported that after 7 p.m. on Halloween, teens under 16 in Covington, Georgia will be required to go home or have an adult with them if they’re in the downtown area of metropolitan Atlanta.
In Long Branch, New Jersey, police departments plan to strictly enforce a Halloween curfew for those under 17 on Oct. 31, which runs from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., according to local news outlets.
Departments could be taking a lesson from the Los Angeles Police Department which in September marshaled an impressive task force to put a stop to the lawless practice which has been plaguing the city for years.
Los Angeles cops apparently have had enough, Breitbart News reported.
That night in September, a police armada of 150 officers tracked movements and locations of the sideshow revelers with drones, then moved in, preventing anyone from leaving.
Dozens of arrests were made and hundreds of citations were issued when the Los Angeles Police Department completed "Operation Street Sweeper" overnight, busting a massive Harbor Gateway street takeover. In total, LAPD says it arrested 69 people and cited 570 people -- including… pic.twitter.com/07O1M961VH
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) September 6, 2026
The impressive results of "Operation Street Sweep" in the Harbor Gateway neighborhood included 69 arrests, 200 cars impounded, and 570 people cited, including 128 juveniles who were past curfew.
Breitbart contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more
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