April 16, 2026 • 11 mins
Douglas County Sheriffs Office is cracking down on street racing in Omaha... Have you ever driven 133 MPH??
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We got a pile of people driving like maniacs racing
around town, and law enforcement has had it up. Joining
us right now on our Big Shot Hotline, Deputy Joe Martinick.
He's a member of the Cat Team of the Douglas
County Sheriff's Department.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Welcome, Deputy, How are you today?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I'm doing well, Chris? How are you well?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'm doing fantastic.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
And I wanted to just I want to give people
an idea of just what kind of craziness these people
Because you hear people racing, I don't know if people
grasp the speeds that these people are actually driving. What's
one of the high rates of speed that you've seen?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
The highest one that I personally have been able to
catch was a young man doing one hundred and thirty
three miles an hour on Dodge by Boys Town a
couple months ago.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Holy cow, what was he driving?
Speaker 3 (00:59):
And Audi S four.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Out e S four.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
So when you see these guys doing this, are these
people just driving like maniacs or are they really racing?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
It's a little bit of both. And we do have
organized uh street street racing uh so much so that
they'll have vehicles behind the two cars that are going
to race to block the other traffic uh, so that
nobody gets in the way of the two racers. Uh.
And then we just have the impromptu stuff where two
(01:34):
guys pull up next to each other at a at
a red light and they're like, hey, you want to go,
and they go. And then we just have those that
think the speed limits are just suggestions and to heck
with it all.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Wow, unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
And I don't want to ask anything to you know,
give away where the cat team or OPD might be operating.
But are there are there certain streets around town that
seem to be more prone to this? Or is it
just about anywhere?
Speaker 3 (02:07):
We see it everywhere, but there are more areas that
or there are areas that are more prone to it,
be it West Dodge Road, West Center, El Street, down
in the thirty third Street, Highway seventy five area, and
then of course the one that dates back to even
before I was born, Abbit drive up by the airport.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Wow, Holy cow.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
And when you are in contact with these people, do
they do they show any remorse or are they just
more concerned with what's going to happen to my car?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
A lot of them have followed us on social media,
and they know that when they get caught their cars
going to be impounded. They also know that they're getting
their car back when they can gather the funds to
get it out of impound. Very few actually show remorse.
If you look at our Facebook page with mugshots of
(03:06):
those that we've booked for street racing, oftentimes a lot
of them are smiling in their mug shots and they
a lot of them just think it's a joke.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
So what kind of fines are they looking at?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Well? In Nebraska, exhibition driving or street racing is a
class two misdemeanor. So with the class two misdemeanor, it's
up to six months imprisonment and or a one thousand
dollars fine. We haven't seen any sentence like that handed
out yet. We're seeing a lot of probation sentences handed out,
but I would imagine as we get more and more
(03:40):
repeat arrests that the judges may start imposing some jail
sentences for those offenses.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
We're talking with Douglas County Deputy Joe Martinick, who is
a member of the cat Team, one of the fine
groups out there. By the way, I just got to
tell you I love your social media stuff there. This
was one a while back where there was a at
pushing a button and there was a car in a
car crusher.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I love that stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
So that goes back to the ads four.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
One hundred and thirty miles an hour.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Now, is it more cars or do you see cars
versus motorcycle or motorcycles?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Is there like a running theme in this.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Car versus car motorcycles? Don't see as much of the
head to head racing with the motorcycles as we do,
just super excessive speeds with the motorcycles.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
And what about street takeovers? I want to get a
little bit and I want to get into that a
little bit because those things. I just see videos where
cars go flying all over the place and people who
aren't even paying attention. Next thing you know, they're getting
knocked over. How much of that are we seeing here?
Speaker 3 (04:56):
We had had a bit of a break in the
actual street takeovers in during the winter months, but now
that the weather's gotten nice again, obviously this last weekend
we had one up at seventy second and Bennington Road
where a large group basically blocked off the entire intersection
so everybody could be spinning. We see this regularly on
(05:22):
Friday and Saturday nights in parking lots, and with the
warmer weather, they are gravitating back out to the streets.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Now, I know, a while back, the sheriff got a
bunch of passes for these street racer guys where they
could actually go over into Iowa and do it without
having to worry about getting arrested.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Are racers taking advantage of.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
That to you know? I was one of those deputies
had handed out hundreds of those passes over to the
I twenty nine Dragway. I just I want to thank
our partner I twenty nine Dragway for giving us those
asses and the opportunity to send these people over to
a place where they can legally have fun with their cars.
(06:10):
I think it was a great opportunity for us to
make contacts with some of these individuals and guide them
towards a safer and lawful way of doing the things
that they're doing.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
You know, I'm not I'll be very honest with you.
I'm not always a guide driving the speed limit, you know.
But I mean, I'm not crazy. But if I get
a ticket, I get a ticket, I gotta go pay
it and take my lumps. Is there just a sense
that you may feel that these guys just think nobody's
(06:45):
going to really bother me, no one's going to catch me,
and then all of a sudden, boom, you got them.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I do think there's been kind of relaxing and the
enforcement of traffic laws since COVID nineteen. When COVID nineteen hit,
police officers were told, hey, you know, we got to
minimize our contacts. Let's, you know, kind of unless it's
a really egregious traffic offense, let's try and back off
(07:12):
traffic enforcement, because that was a way for us to
minimize exposure to other people in the performance of our duties. Well,
COVID's gone now, and because of that laxed enforcement, we're
kind of seeing the repercussions of that now, and so
we're trying to get people back to driving free pandemic style.
(07:40):
You know, when I first became a deputy sheriff twenty
six years ago, eleven miles over the speed limit was
kind of where you see people getting pulled over and
getting tickets. And now everybody is eleven miles over the
speed limit. It's not uncommon for me, right, five or
(08:00):
six tickets every shift for somebody doing thirty over the
speed limits, and we really need to get those numbers
back down to where that eleven twelve miles an hour
over the speed limit is the extreme.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Now, is there any possibility in the near future that
one of these cars would be seized and sold at auction?
And if so, could you give me a heads up.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
You know, there are some states right now that have
passed legislation for repeat offenders where the law enforcement agency can,
if there's no leans on the vehicle, see that vehicle
and sell it at auction or turn it into a
police service vehicle. Nebraska doesn't have any such law, and
that would be completely up to the full Brights done
(08:51):
in Lincoln to pass that.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
The full Brights down in Lincoln.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I love that, you know, because now that I think
about it, I've been in markets where they would seize
vehicles and then turn them into police cars, and you
would see these awesome cars, and then all of a
sudden you realize, wait a minute, that's that's a Ferrari
painted as a black and white with lights on the top.
That's I think that'd be a good deal. I like that. Well,
(09:22):
I'm sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
It would be interesting.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah, it would be. Well.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Listen, I really appreciate you taking time to join us
here on the show today, and most of all, Deputy Martinick,
thanks a lot for your service to Douglas County.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
I really really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Well, thank you very much, Chris. Just one thing I
would like to say, You know, Douglas kind of share
us office and our deputies. We don't have anything against
car enthusiasts. Hey. We love seeing peaceful, organized car shows,
classic cars from the fifties and sixties or even older
too modern supercars at these nice car shows where everybody
(10:00):
just gets together and appreciates the vehicles. But what we
don't like is the reckless driving that some bad actors
that gravitate towards those groups then move out onto the street.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
You know, I thought of something else.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
How many of these people you deal with are drunk
or under some kind of dope, or just they don't
have their capacities. Do you run into that a lot
in this racing.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
We do, I mean alcohol and drugs certainly relax people's
inhibitions and make some bad decisions at times, whether it's
driving too fast or deciding that they're going to do
a bunch of donuts and a crowd of people or
what have you. When you're not thinking straight, you're more
likely to make those bad decisions.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
And what about guys that say, you know, I didn't
want to do this, but my girlfriend was calling me
a whimp and saying that I couldn't outrun that. You
run into any female pressure on these guys.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
I have yet to run under the female pressure.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
That's a stupid question. How many women do you catch
in this stuff too? I know women are they like
this stuff too?
Speaker 3 (11:10):
I will say the majority of our offenders have been males,
but we do get the occasional female that's out there's
spinning or racing.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Hmm, that's wild.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
All right, Deputy, thank you, Thank you one, and thanks
for clarifying that. It's not like you guys don't like
really great cars. It's just don't endanger the public by
screaming around the streets like maniacs.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Absolutely all right.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Really appreciate your time today, deputy, and best to you, sir.
Stay safe, you too, take care, appreciate it all right.
There you go, Douglas County's finest. Can you believe that
one hundred and thirty over one hundred and thirty miles
an hour.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
That's amazing, very very fast.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
I don't I don't think I've ever bought gone that
fast in my life. So now I have new goals.
We got a pile of people driving like maniacs racing
around town, and law enforcement has had it up. Joining
us right now on our Big Shot Hotline, Deputy Joe Martinick.
He's a member of the Cat Team of the Douglas
County Sheriff's Department.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Welcome, Deputy, How are you today?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I'm doing well, Chris? How are you well?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'm doing fantastic.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
And I wanted to just I want to give people
an idea of just what kind of craziness these people
Because you hear people racing, I don't know if people
grasp the speeds that these people are actually driving. What's
one of the high rates of speed that you've seen?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
The highest one that I personally have been able to
catch was a young man doing one hundred and thirty
three miles an hour on Dodge by Boys Town a
couple months ago.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Holy cow, what was he driving?
Speaker 3 (00:59):
And Audi S four.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Out e S four.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
So when you see these guys doing this, are these
people just driving like maniacs or are they really racing?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
It's a little bit of both. And we do have
organized uh street street racing uh so much so that
they'll have vehicles behind the two cars that are going
to race to block the other traffic uh, so that
nobody gets in the way of the two racers. Uh.
And then we just have the impromptu stuff where two
(01:34):
guys pull up next to each other at a at
a red light and they're like, hey, you want to go,
and they go. And then we just have those that
think the speed limits are just suggestions and to heck
with it all.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Wow, unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
And I don't want to ask anything to you know,
give away where the cat team or OPD might be operating.
But are there are there certain streets around town that
seem to be more prone to this? Or is it
just about anywhere?
Speaker 3 (02:07):
We see it everywhere, but there are more areas that
or there are areas that are more prone to it,
be it West Dodge Road, West Center, El Street, down
in the thirty third Street, Highway seventy five area, and
then of course the one that dates back to even
before I was born, Abbit drive up by the airport.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Wow, Holy cow.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
And when you are in contact with these people, do
they do they show any remorse or are they just
more concerned with what's going to happen to my car?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
A lot of them have followed us on social media,
and they know that when they get caught their cars
going to be impounded. They also know that they're getting
their car back when they can gather the funds to
get it out of impound. Very few actually show remorse.
If you look at our Facebook page with mugshots of
(03:06):
those that we've booked for street racing, oftentimes a lot
of them are smiling in their mug shots and they
a lot of them just think it's a joke.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
So what kind of fines are they looking at?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Well? In Nebraska, exhibition driving or street racing is a
class two misdemeanor. So with the class two misdemeanor, it's
up to six months imprisonment and or a one thousand
dollars fine. We haven't seen any sentence like that handed
out yet. We're seeing a lot of probation sentences handed out,
but I would imagine as we get more and more
(03:40):
repeat arrests that the judges may start imposing some jail
sentences for those offenses.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
We're talking with Douglas County Deputy Joe Martinick, who is
a member of the cat Team, one of the fine
groups out there. By the way, I just got to
tell you I love your social media stuff there. This
was one a while back where there was a at
pushing a button and there was a car in a
car crusher.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I love that stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
So that goes back to the ads four.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
One hundred and thirty miles an hour.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Now, is it more cars or do you see cars
versus motorcycle or motorcycles?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Is there like a running theme in this.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Car versus car motorcycles? Don't see as much of the
head to head racing with the motorcycles as we do,
just super excessive speeds with the motorcycles.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
And what about street takeovers? I want to get a
little bit and I want to get into that a
little bit because those things. I just see videos where
cars go flying all over the place and people who
aren't even paying attention. Next thing you know, they're getting
knocked over. How much of that are we seeing here?
Speaker 3 (04:56):
We had had a bit of a break in the
actual street takeovers in during the winter months, but now
that the weather's gotten nice again, obviously this last weekend
we had one up at seventy second and Bennington Road
where a large group basically blocked off the entire intersection
so everybody could be spinning. We see this regularly on
(05:22):
Friday and Saturday nights in parking lots, and with the
warmer weather, they are gravitating back out to the streets.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Now, I know, a while back, the sheriff got a
bunch of passes for these street racer guys where they
could actually go over into Iowa and do it without
having to worry about getting arrested.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Are racers taking advantage of.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
That to you know? I was one of those deputies
had handed out hundreds of those passes over to the
I twenty nine Dragway. I just I want to thank
our partner I twenty nine Dragway for giving us those
asses and the opportunity to send these people over to
a place where they can legally have fun with their cars.
(06:10):
I think it was a great opportunity for us to
make contacts with some of these individuals and guide them
towards a safer and lawful way of doing the things
that they're doing.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
You know, I'm not I'll be very honest with you.
I'm not always a guide driving the speed limit, you know.
But I mean, I'm not crazy. But if I get
a ticket, I get a ticket, I gotta go pay
it and take my lumps. Is there just a sense
that you may feel that these guys just think nobody's
(06:45):
going to really bother me, no one's going to catch me,
and then all of a sudden, boom, you got them.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I do think there's been kind of relaxing and the
enforcement of traffic laws since COVID nineteen. When COVID nineteen hit,
police officers were told, hey, you know, we got to
minimize our contacts. Let's, you know, kind of unless it's
a really egregious traffic offense, let's try and back off
(07:12):
traffic enforcement, because that was a way for us to
minimize exposure to other people in the performance of our duties. Well,
COVID's gone now, and because of that laxed enforcement, we're
kind of seeing the repercussions of that now, and so
we're trying to get people back to driving free pandemic style.
(07:40):
You know, when I first became a deputy sheriff twenty
six years ago, eleven miles over the speed limit was
kind of where you see people getting pulled over and
getting tickets. And now everybody is eleven miles over the
speed limit. It's not uncommon for me, right, five or
(08:00):
six tickets every shift for somebody doing thirty over the
speed limits, and we really need to get those numbers
back down to where that eleven twelve miles an hour
over the speed limit is the extreme.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Now, is there any possibility in the near future that
one of these cars would be seized and sold at auction?
And if so, could you give me a heads up.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
You know, there are some states right now that have
passed legislation for repeat offenders where the law enforcement agency can,
if there's no leans on the vehicle, see that vehicle
and sell it at auction or turn it into a
police service vehicle. Nebraska doesn't have any such law, and
that would be completely up to the full Brights done
(08:51):
in Lincoln to pass that.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
The full Brights down in Lincoln.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I love that, you know, because now that I think
about it, I've been in markets where they would seize
vehicles and then turn them into police cars, and you
would see these awesome cars, and then all of a
sudden you realize, wait a minute, that's that's a Ferrari
painted as a black and white with lights on the top.
That's I think that'd be a good deal. I like that. Well,
(09:22):
I'm sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
It would be interesting.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah, it would be. Well.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Listen, I really appreciate you taking time to join us
here on the show today, and most of all, Deputy Martinick,
thanks a lot for your service to Douglas County.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
I really really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Well, thank you very much, Chris. Just one thing I
would like to say, You know, Douglas kind of share
us office and our deputies. We don't have anything against
car enthusiasts. Hey. We love seeing peaceful, organized car shows,
classic cars from the fifties and sixties or even older
too modern supercars at these nice car shows where everybody
(10:00):
just gets together and appreciates the vehicles. But what we
don't like is the reckless driving that some bad actors
that gravitate towards those groups then move out onto the street.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
You know, I thought of something else.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
How many of these people you deal with are drunk
or under some kind of dope, or just they don't
have their capacities. Do you run into that a lot
in this racing.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
We do, I mean alcohol and drugs certainly relax people's
inhibitions and make some bad decisions at times, whether it's
driving too fast or deciding that they're going to do
a bunch of donuts and a crowd of people or
what have you. When you're not thinking straight, you're more
likely to make those bad decisions.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
And what about guys that say, you know, I didn't
want to do this, but my girlfriend was calling me
a whimp and saying that I couldn't outrun that. You
run into any female pressure on these guys.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
I have yet to run under the female pressure.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
That's a stupid question. How many women do you catch
in this stuff too? I know women are they like
this stuff too?
Speaker 3 (11:10):
I will say the majority of our offenders have been males,
but we do get the occasional female that's out there's
spinning or racing.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Hmm, that's wild.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
All right, Deputy, thank you, Thank you one, and thanks
for clarifying that. It's not like you guys don't like
really great cars. It's just don't endanger the public by
screaming around the streets like maniacs.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Absolutely all right.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Really appreciate your time today, deputy, and best to you, sir.
Stay safe, you too, take care, appreciate it all right.
There you go, Douglas County's finest. Can you believe that
one hundred and thirty over one hundred and thirty miles
an hour.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
That's amazing, very very fast.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
I don't I don't think I've ever bought gone that
fast in my life. So now I have new goals.
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