The West Warwick Town Council spent time at its Tuesday, July 21 meeting discussing whether to tighten permitting rules for car shows, after a recent event at a Holy Ghost parish lot drew four competing car clubs whose rivalry spilled into the surrounding streets, prompted a police response, and left at least one elderly resident frightened in her own home.
The discussion, raised under the "upcoming meetings and events" agenda item, was prompted in part by a car show scheduled for the following night at Town Hall. But a council member used the moment to describe in detail what happened at an earlier show at the Holy Ghost site, which ran from 6 to 10 p.m. and drew four separate car clubs advertised online with more than 30,000 views in a single day, according to the council member's account in the meeting recording.
According to that account, the council member received four phone calls within roughly an hour around 8 p.m. as the event wound down, including one from an 80-year-old resident who the council member said was "very nervous" on her own doorstep. Police were called around 8:15 to 8:20 p.m., and within about a half hour, six tickets had been issued and one arrest made, the council member said.
The council member described cars doing burnouts and revving engines while leaving the site, with vehicles parked bumper to bumper along a nearby street until it was reduced to a single lane, and posted no-parking signs ignored throughout the area. The council member said the event's organizer repeatedly told participants over a microphone to stop revving their engines and warned they would be ticketed, but that drivers largely ignored the warnings. Some drivers, the council member said, appeared to coordinate to distract officers who had pulled others over, moving from one part of the area to another to avoid enforcement.
The council member said the Holy Ghost organizers were not to blame, noting they had arranged a police detail, but said a single officer was not enough for an event of that scale involving four rival groups. "It's like bringing in 10 different motorcycle gangs and saying, 'Hey, get along, guys,'" the council member said, contrasting the incident with other shows held at the same site — including one running 2 to 5 p.m. — that had drawn no complaints. A resident who attended the earlier portion of the show as a car enthusiast told the council member she left by 8 p.m. because she anticipated what would happen after dark.
Council members discussed two possible changes going forward: requiring car show organizers to disclose, as part of the permitting process, which specific car clubs or "street rod" groups plan to participate, and potentially capping the number of vehicles allowed based on the size of a venue's parking lot. One council member noted that another car show is already scheduled for August 23 without any advertising yet identifying who is organizing it, raising concern that the town could face a repeat of the same problem without warning.
No ordinance or formal permitting change was introduced or voted on Tuesday; the conversation was raised as a discussion item, with council members agreeing informally that identifying participating groups in advance would help. The council's next regular meeting is scheduled for August 18, according to the meeting recording, where any formal permitting changes would need to come forward as a resolution or ordinance for a vote.