[Baltimore Sun] Dirt bikers on notice: Baltimore authorities warn against illegal dirt bikes, as advocates seek changes
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Baltimore authorities are warning those illegally riding dirt bikes on city streets: Consequences are coming.
Police and prosecutors have issued a reminder that riding dirt bikes and selling fuel for dirt bikes within Baltimore’s city limits is prohibited. The State’s Attorney’s Office, the joint statement added, will look to charge the parents or guardians of children found illegally riding or storing dirt bikes.
“As the weather warms up and illegal dirt bike usage increases, we need to explore every option to curb these activities,” Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said in a news release. “It is a nuisance, disruptive to our neighborhoods and detrimental to our residents’ quality of life.”
While dirt bike riding in Baltimore is illegal, it has long been popular, with riders in summer months flocking to city streets to rev their engines, pop wheelies and perform stunts.
The city’s dirt bike culture is “just like the crabs, snowballs and our harbor,” said Brittany Young, founder and CEO of B-360, an organization that aims to attract students to STEM through dirt bike culture, and hosts a popular summer camp.
“For many people, it’s a cultural staple that is often misunderstood or displaced,” Young said in an email Tuesday. “For Black kids in our city, it’s a sport just like basketball or skateboarding. Many riders see the culture as a family and utilize it to relieve stress.”
Advocates for safe and lawful dirt bike riding like B-360 hope to see support for alternatives like a dirt bike park and, potentially, changes to city ordinances governing dirt bikes.
Baltimore law bars both riding dirt bikes and possessing bikes that aren’t locked or “immobilized.” The city can treat riding bikes as a criminal misdemeanor rather than a traffic violation. Seized dirt bikes cannot be given to community groups like B-360.
“For confiscated dirt bikes, we want to be able to retrieve them, the ones that are forfeited, to use the parts, the pieces, the plastics — anything you can think of — because this is how we’re getting our young people excited,” Young told City Council members at a committee hearing earlier this month.
While groups like B-360 see the polarizing phenomenon as an opportunity to engage with young people, residents who see it as a public safety concern point to risks posed to other drivers and the nuisance of loud bikes and ATVs.
Previous crackdowns on dirt bikes, involving task forces and aerial surveillance, led to fewer riders. But it also led to allegations of profiling, including assumptions about other criminal activity, and at least one instance cited in a U.S. Department of Justice investigation of police arresting and using force against a 7-year-old sitting on a dirt bike.
Baltimore Police’s director of government affairs, Erin Murphy, said at the council’s April hearing that in 2023 police made 45 arrests, issued 39 criminal summonses and nine arrest warrants, seized 108 bikes or ATVs, and recovered two handguns connected to dirt bikes. So far in 2024, Murphy said, the department has seized 29 dirt bikes or ATVs and made five arrests for violations.
Police spokeswoman Amanda Krotki said Tuesday that police seized a total of 673 dirt bikes from 2019 through 2023.
A news release from the police department and State’s Attorney highlighted that service stations and other entities selling fuel for dirt bikes can be subject to fines, and that no parent or guardian can “knowingly” permit their child to violate dirt bike ordinances by riding or storing the vehicles.
First-time parent or guardian violators will receive a referral to parenting classes, according to James Bentley, a spokesman for the State’s Attorney. The law also provides for a fine or jail time.
“Illegal dirt bike riding endangers pedestrians, drivers and the riders themselves,” State’s Attorney Ivan Bates said in the release. “It’s imperative that we crack down on every individual enabling illegal dirt bike riding to persist in our city and uplift those organizations, like B-360, that provide alternatives to riders.”
Bates said the “increased enforcement” is a response to “calls from our residents and communities.”
Some people found violating dirt bike laws may be eligible for diversion to B-360, based on the State’s Attorney’s Office’s evaluation. Those who are diverted can do service hours in exchange for the dismissal of pending cases, thereby avoiding fines or jail time.
B-360 said at the hearing that dozens of former street riders had been diverted. At an average cost of $1,500 per participant, the programming is a cheaper alternative to incarceration, Young said.
“It’s been proven that direct services programming and holistic approaches lead to reductions in crime, increase in public safety and healthy people,” Young told The Baltimore Sun. “If you believe in Baltimore, you should believe in B-360.”
In all, the group says it serves an average of 1,100 participants each year, most of whom are between the ages of 4 and 17. One teenaged participant in the council hearing described how he was asked to kiss a baby after performing at a show during the Maryland Cycling Classic. That’s when, he said, he knew he was “doing something right.”
Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun
Dirt bike rider Nyerell Fisher, 14, with B360, demonstrate his riding skills to entertain the crowd at the finish line of the first Maryland Cycling Classic. The one-day professional road race takes over 100 racers through 120 miles of country roads in Baltimore County and finishing at the Inner Harbor.Sept. 4, 2022.
Councilman Antonio Glover, a Democrat representing communities in East Baltimore, said at the hearing that dirt bike riding is a “craft” for many young residents. Illegal riding should be discouraged, he said, but there should be an emphasis on fostering opportunities around dirt bike riding and young people’s talents.
B-360 is fundraising for a dedicated campus with a dirt bike track, and has received federal grant money to put toward the goal. It also was the recipient of American Rescue Plan Act funds distributed by city officials, to put toward STEM education and workforce training programming.
Young said at the hearing that the organization has a fleet of 30 dirt bikes. If B-360 were permitted to “upcycle” confiscated bikes that are “rotting away,” it could lower the group’s costs and put the bikes to good use, she said. Current ordinances effectively bar that because they require the city to either sell, destroy or transfer forfeited bikes to a charitable organization “for export abroad.”
Rashad Staton, the executive director of Community Law in Action, which is working with B-360, added that he’d like to see ordinances treat dirt bikes as traffic violations, with an equitable fine system, rather than misdemeanors with the potential of jail time. He also suggested regulating and registering dirt bikes.
Ty’lor Schnella, who works for Scott’s office of government relations, told City Council members earlier this month that the administration was working with B-360 to target “legislative, legal, practical and political hurdles” the organization faces. He cited the importance of making sure any bikes stay in “productive use,” and don’t end up back on city streets.
“The issue of dirt bikes has been pervasive in the city of Baltimore for decades, and there are still many city residents who view them as public nuisances,” Schnella said. “We have to ensure that we do this in a way that does not send the wrong message to those who ride their bikes illegally on our streets.”
Councilman Mark Conway, a Democrat who chairs the Public Safety and Government Operations Committee, urged a strategic, thoughtful solution.
“I think we’re all looking to … invest in our young people,” said Conway, who represents part of North Baltimore. “Dirt bikes is one of those opportunities, but it is also, to be honest, one of our problems that we need to resolve.”
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