Photos: Cars impounded in Halloween plaza blitz in Mississauga and Brampton

Police have impounded multiple cars and laid charges on Halloween weekend amid ongoing enforcement at plazas in Mississauga and Brampton. (Photo: PRP Safer Roads Team)

Police have impounded multiple cars and laid charges on Halloween weekend amid ongoing enforcement at plazas in Mississauga and Brampton.

The Peel Regional Police’s Safer Roads Team says officers were out over the Halloween weekend at Trinity Common Plaza in Brampton, and Derry Financial Plaza in Mississauga.

Police in Peel and across Ontario have been cracking down on car rallies and street racing in recent years, laying some 20,000 traffic charges in the first half of 2024 in Mississauga and Brampton. Trinity Commons Mall has previously been a hot spot during the Project ERASE campaign aimed at reducing street racing.

The loud rallies have led to complaints from residents and calls from police for drivers to obey traffic laws.

Photos shared by police from the weekend enforcement show multiple Halloween-themed vehicles loaded onto flatbed trailers, including one covered in what appears to be fake blood and another draped in caution tape.

Peel police say the vehicles were impounded for two weeks, while the drivers were hit with 30-day license suspensions.

Hundreds of charges were laid in a blitz on loud car rallies at a Brampton mall last October, where the city passed strict nuisance bylaws with fines between $800 to $2,000. Mississauga’s Ridgeway Plaza has regularly attracted vehicle gatherings since opening in 2022 related to excessive late-night noise, street racing, parking concerns and other issues.