ST. LOUIS – St. Louis police are asking local tire shops to be on the lookout for vehicles coming in with spikes in their tires after spiking dozens of cars engaging in reckless driving Sunday night. This comes after videos of a slideshow in a south city neighborhood prompted complaints on social media.

The St. Louis 911 Dispatch Center received several calls around 8:50 p.m. from residents in the Holly Hills neighborhood complaining of reckless driving at Holly Hills Boulevard and Leona Street.

Mitch McCoy, a spokesman for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, said the Mobile Reserve and Anti-Crime Task Force units were in route to Holly Hills when they received word of a firefighter in need of aid from a traffic crash at Hampton and Gravois avenues.

Because of the severity and priority of those calls, members of both units diverted to the crash scene while the task force commander continued to Holly Hills and Leona, McCoy said.

The task force commander arrived at the scene at approximately 9:13 p.m. to find the slideshow had already dispersed. After speaking with witnesses at the scene, the commander, relying on prior intelligence and knowledge of the behavior of these groups, went to South Kingshighway and Christy boulevards in the Bevo neighborhood.

McCoy said the task force commander found the group in the Burlington Coat Factory parking lot and requested assistance. Police activated their lights and sirens, and the drivers fled.

The group reconvened in a parking lot at South Second Street and Shenandoah Avenue in the Kosciusko neighborhood, McCoy said. Again, officers arrived and activated their lights and sirens, prompting the drivers to flee. Between 25 and 30 vehicles were spiked as they left the parking lot. There was one reported accident involving a juvenile driver, McCoy said. The driver fled but turned himself in later that evening with his mother.

The slideshow crew was tracked to North Ninth and Le Beaume streets in the Near North Riverfront neighborhood. Once again, the drivers fled when police arrived. An Infiniti SUV was spiked at the scene while driving recklessly, McCoy said.

The group went to South Broadway and Cerre Street in downtown, and then Hall Street and Gimblin Road in the Baden neighborhood. McCoy said an additional 15 to 20 vehicles were spiked as drivers attempted to escape.

Up to 50 vehicles were spiked.

“We want to be perfectly clear – this type of behavior will absolutely not be tolerated,” McCoy said.

When asked why police didn’t make more arrests involving the spiked vehicles, McCoy explained that a spiked tire simply deflates over time, meaning a car can still travel for a few miles. But he stressed those tires would be flat as of Monday morning.

“If there are tire shops that are seeing tires that have spikes in them, please call our South Patrol Division,” McCoy said.

In breaking up a slideshow, McCoy said police liken it to a game of cat and mouse. Which car or cars do you pursue? And how many police vehicles are you prepared to commit to a pursuit? McCoy said the best and safest option is to spike the tires to ensure these reckless drivers are literally paying the price for their actions by having to replace one or more tires.

The exact number of drivers participating in Sunday night’s slideshows across the city is unknown. McCoy said First Ward Alderwoman Anne Schweitzer, whose ward covers Holly Hills, estimated up to 100 vehicles involved. McCoy said Sundays are typically a big night for slideshows.

McCoy said police will continue to respond and spike vehicles that are engaging in this kind of behavior and driving recklessly, and that people will be held accountable.

“If you come to the City of St. Louis and you are engaged in this—in a large group street takeover—you will be spiked,” he said.

Anyone who is arrested for participating in an illegal slideshow could face charges of peace disturbance, reckless driving, and fleeing.