By William Kenny

Times Staff Writer

Residents of East Torresdale have for years complained to the 8th Police District about the organized auto drag races that routinely occur on State Road near Linden Avenue.

At the Oct. 12 meeting of the East Torresdale Civic Association, the 8th district's commanding officer told neighbors that her officers have neither the authority nor the resources to catch the drag racers as they engage in their high-stakes, death-defying game.

Capt. Deborah Kelly's revelations kicked off a meeting that later became heated when neighbors argued over a controversial home-construction plan by a longtime member of the ETCA.

With the civic group divided virtually down the middle on the proposal for a set of twins at 4507-09 Linden Ave., members voted not to take a formal position on the issue, angering foes of the plan.

On the other hand, nobody seemed too thrilled about Kelly's explanation of the applicable laws regarding drag racing and of the police policies restricting vehicle pursuits. Those laws and regulations severely hinder the patrol district's ability to catch the illegal street racers in the act.

Typically, racers will assemble with their hot rods in a local parking lot at a pre-selected time, usually at night and on a weekend. The cars will stage on State Road just south of Linden Avenue at the start of a quarter-mile straight-away. They line up two abreast in a southbound direction.

Before the race, they'll heat their tires by doing loud burnouts in the street. A member of the organizing crew may or may not drive to the end of the course in front of the Philadelphia Police Academy to block oncoming motorists from getting in the way.

Drivers can reach speeds well in excess of 100 mph before the finish line.

Yet, Pennsylvania's traffic code does not rank drag racing as serious a crime as some in East Torresdale may consider it. According to Kelly, violating the racing statute is a summary offense - essentially a traffic ticket - punishable by a $200 fine and $92.50 in court costs.

Further, a Philadelphia police directive on vehicle pursuit dictates that "initiating a pursuit solely for traffic violations is strictly prohibited," Kelly reported.

In a practical setting, that means when a cop sees a drag racer flying down State Road, he or she must rely on the suspect motorist's willingness to pull over voluntarily.

And even if officers were permitted to pursue traffic law violators, other elements of the same police directive would force those officers to think long and hard before taking up the chase.

The departmental policy, which was adopted just last Dec. 30, orders that the "primary concern of any pursuit is the safety and welfare of the public, other officers and the suspects."

In addition to the human safety considerations, Kelly explained that she also has equipment safety to consider. That is, if one of her officers engages in a vehicle pursuit and his vehicle becomes disabled, then the entire district could be short of a patrol car for potentially days, weeks or longer.

"If I have vehicles taken off of the street, that reduces my resources," Kelly said.

Regardless of the circumstances, police are prohibited from using high-risk techniques including "boxing in" and "ramming" to stop fleeing vehicles or from using their patrol cars to set up roadblocks.

"That's TV stuff," the district captain said.