VIDEO: Drivers accused of street racing told metro Atlanta officers they were ‘just messing around’

New video shows the moments that metro Atlanta officers confronted two suspected street racers.

It happened in Powder Springs, where the drivers were stopped as part of a larger effort to combat speeding in the community.

Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell received video from police of the confrontation.

When they were pulled over, both drivers said they were “just messing around.”

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Now they’re both charged with street racing, though they are out of jail.

Still, as street racing continues to impact Powder Springs, police want other drivers to know that there are consequences to getting involved in these high-speed activities, and that’s why the department is cracking down on it.

Police said they were already on patrol when they caught the two drivers, both of whom are just 17-years-old.

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From the dash camera footage of the police response, you can hear officers initiating the traffic stop, splitting up who does what.

“I’ll try to get the other one stopped, I got the first one stopped at the same intersection,” an officer says on the video.

Another officer is heard saying “they clocked two speeders which you can clearly tell that they were racing.”

One driver told police he was driving a little fast but also admitted he was racing after another car.

“We were just racing, we were just going a little fast,” the video shows him tell police.

An officer asked him why he was driving at 82 mph, and he said it was because he was “just messing around.”

It was 25 miles over the speed limit, according to police.

Eventually one driver apologized to officers for driving so fast, after police said they were passing officers at the same speed with their hazard lights on.

Powder Springs Deputy Chief Louis Defense told Channel 2 Action News that the department is just trying to keep people safe.

“We are just out here trying to make an impact to get people here to slow down,” Defense said. “In the last several months, we’ve seen an uptick in people racing up and down 278 or exceeding the speed limit.”

Police told Newell they’ve caught some drivers going more than 100 mph.

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