West Midlands Police says its Operation Hercules team seized more than 70 vehicles for dangerous or anti-social driving between 1 July and 30 September, including 35 in September. The force links the total to a change in section 59 of the Police Reform Act 2002, which it says removed the need to issue a warning before taking seizure action.
The change took effect at the end of June, according to the force. The reported quarter therefore covers the first three months after the new approach began. The figure is a police enforcement total: it does not establish that every driver was prosecuted, convicted or found guilty of an offence. The announcement does not provide a breakdown of individual cases, vehicle types, locations or subsequent legal outcomes.
What section 59 allows
Section 59 concerns vehicles used in a manner that contravenes road-traffic law on careless or inconsiderate driving, or off-road driving, and causes or is likely to cause alarm, distress or annoyance to members of the public. The law gives a uniformed constable powers that include stopping and seizing a vehicle where the statutory conditions are met. The force describes the recent amendment as allowing action at the first incident rather than requiring an earlier warning.
That is a change to the route to enforcement, not a declaration that any vehicle involved in a gathering can automatically be taken. The statutory test still matters, and an announced seizure is not itself proof of a conviction. The force has not published the case-by-case grounds used for the more than 70 seizures, so the total should be read as its operational account rather than a court-established finding about each driver.
Separate measures against street racing
The force also points to injunctions covering Birmingham and the Black Country, alongside Public Space Protection Orders in affected areas. Its summary says the injunctions apply to people driving, riding or travelling as passengers at gatherings involving motor racing, stunts or other dangerous or obstructive driving. The named coverage includes Birmingham and the boroughs of Wolverhampton, Sandwell and Walsall.
These measures are distinct from section 59 seizure powers. The force says breaching an injunction may lead to contempt-of-court proceedings and penalties such as a fine, imprisonment or an order affecting assets. It says breaches of the relevant Public Space Protection Orders can result in fines of up to £1,000. Those are possible consequences described by police, not outcomes reported for the quarter’s vehicle seizures.
The distinction matters because the three tools address related but different situations: section 59 concerns the use of a vehicle meeting its legal test; an injunction prohibits specified conduct within its scope; and a Public Space Protection Order sets local restrictions. The force’s release does not say how many of the quarter’s seizures related to racing or cruising gatherings, or whether any involved an injunction or PSPO breach.
A longer-running operation
Operation Hercules predates the new rule. In a May update, the force said the team had secured 100 convictions since January 2025 and reported 58 vehicle seizures over that period. Those figures cover a longer historical span and should not be added to, or directly compared with, the latest July-to-September count without consistent definitions and time periods.
A separate August account described one operation in which police seized 13 vehicles during action against an anticipated street-cruising meet-up and issued 18 fines for a range of reported offences. That was an individual operation, not the three-month total. The force’s July figures for its wider Road Harm Prevention Team likewise concern a different programme of road checks and vehicles removed for matters including insurance or tax.
For drivers, the central message from the force is that a prior section 59 warning is no longer a prerequisite to seizure when the legal conditions are met. For residents, the reported total signals enforcement activity, but it does not measure the overall level of street racing, establish that the behaviour has declined, or show the final outcome of each case. The force asks people to report incidents through its non-emergency channels, with emergencies reported through the emergency number.
