Cruise Control : Crime: Oxnard police are cracking down on the drivers in an effort to stem gang activity.

Fearing that the re-emergence of Sunday night cruising will foster gang warfare, Oxnard police are dusting off a 3-year-old statute that bans the activity.

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Authorities think the cruisers, who used to tie up the streets for hours every Sunday night, are back because of flyers announcing that the activity is legal again.

But it is not, said authorities, who plan to set up a command post Sunday night at Channel Islands Boulevard and Saviers Road to nab the scofflaws.

Police define cruising as driving past or near the same traffic control point, such as a stoplight, at least twice during a two-hour span in congested traffic.

Cruisers will be fined $100 to $250, said Tom Chronister, a senior officer with the Oxnard Police Department.

“We want everyone to know that we have a zero tolerance to that kind of activity, and anyone seen cruising will be given a citation,” Chronister said.

Cruising was made illegal in Oxnard in 1992 when the city passed an ordinance prohibiting the traditional Sunday night bumper-to-bumper parade of cars that moved along a mile-long strip of Saviers Road in south Oxnard.

Shortly after the ban went into effect in October, 1992, cruising nearly disappeared.

But since an unknown group began circulating flyers saying cruising had been legalized, motorists from as far as San Luis Obispo and Los Angeles have been flocking to Saviers Road on Sunday nights, Chronister said.

“Unfortunately, cruising and gang activities have gone hand-in-hand here in Oxnard, and we just can’t allow that kind of activity to start again, because it creates a climate for disruptive behavior,” Chronister said.

During the Sunday night crackdown, police officers will use cameras to videotape motorists cruising the road. Both drivers and passengers in cruising cars would be fined, Chronister said.

In addition, police officers will hand flyers to every driver crossing the command-post intersection, informing them that cruising is prohibited in Oxnard.

“The idea is to have people stop cruising, not to give them citations,” said Oxnard Police Cmdr. Charles Hookstra. “That’s why we want to make sure every driver will receive a flyer instructing them about the law.”

Police officers will work overtime to patrol the area from 8 p.m. Sunday to 2 a.m. Monday, authorities said.

For decades, Oxnard had allowed cruising on the grounds that it provided an outlet for low-income teen-agers to have some fun.

But by the early 1990s, more than 300 cars from as far away as San Luis Obispo and San Bernardino counties would crowd Saviers Road on Sunday nights.

Violence was reported among the locals and out-of-town gang members who dealt drugs and drove drunk, and each cruise night was costing taxpayers an average of $1,274 for officials to police the area.

Crime escalated so much that, in 1991, officers made 609 arrests on Saviers Road on Sundays between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m., contrasted with 470 arrests in other areas of Oxnard during the same hours, authorities said.