The calendar hasn’t even reached March yet, and the city of Springfield’s police department is already seeing the first signs of springtime.

Not the first robin or a groundhog’s shadow.

In Springfield, it’s the re-emergence of the so-called “wheelie kids,” the roving packs of teens and young adults on bicycles, dirt bikes, and 4-wheeled all-terrain vehicles riding down city streets, performing gravity-defying stunts and coming dangerously close to city traffic.

“It’s started a little bit earlier than what I thought,” police Commissioner Cheryl C. Clapprood said Thursday.

With the first batch of complaints coming in as early as last weekend, Clapprood said it is time for the department to launch a plan to put the brakes on the wheelie kids before it gets out of hand. She cited a number of incidents over the past week involving packs of stunt riders disrupting traffic, and in one case spitting at a bus driver.

“It’s a game for them, you know, and unfortunately it’s not a game for motorists,” she said.

If the complaints have started early because of the mild weather, Clapprood only has to look at what happened last year to know more is yet to come as days get longer and warmer.

Between the start of spring and the end of fall last year, Springfield police received more than 700 emergency calls about packs of riders on bicycles, dirt bikes and similar vehicles on public streets.

Springfield police have enough problems with run-of-the-mill “road rage,” Clapprood said — and they don’t need a bunch of stunt riders playing chicken in traffic with moving vehicles.

For those who say the city needs a bike park where kids could perform stunts all they want, Clapprood said riding in traffic appears to be the whole point. “This is the game,” she said. “What they’re doing mostly is filming themselves."

While the packs are tearing down the road, popping wheelies and playing chicken with vehicles, some riders shoot video footage, either with a GoPro camera or cell phone.

The videos are edited, given a soundtrack, and then shared on social media.

“They have a challenge amongst themselves to see how many hits they can get on Youtube,” Clapprood said.

Type in a couple of keywords into YouTube’s search and there is no shortage of Springfield-based videos of riders performing stunts against a backdrop of landmarks on Main Street, State Street and other major roadways.

In one clip, a rider on a dirt bike pops a wheelie in front of MGM Springfield and holds it for several hundred feet as he goes from the road to the sidewalk and then across the intersection at Main and State streets.

The problem with packs of stunt riders is not just a Springfield issue. Police in Chicopee and Worcester, and the Massachusetts State Police have reported similar problems in recent years.

In 2017, Worcester’s Police Department created a task force to deal with the issue, focusing on education and enforcement.

“Over the past month, the Worcester Police Department has received numerous complaints regarding a growing number of teens riding bicycles in a reckless manner and creating hazardous conditions on public roadways,” Worcester Police Chief Steven M. Sargent wrote in a report to City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. and the City Council. “Our officers have responded to these incidents and have found that teens are traveling on bicycles in groups (typically ranging from 5 to 20 individuals).”

Clapprood said there have been a number of incidents already this year. One driver on Worthington Street got out of his truck to challenge a group of riders to a fight, she said.

On Monday, a teenage boy performing stunts on his bike was injured when struck by a car in the South End. And on Wednesday, a group of teens on bicycles surrounded a PVTA bus at Main and Court streets. Police said they taunted the driver, and that one spit through an open window into the driver’s face. In another incident, Clapprood said a pack of riders played chicken with a fire truck responding to a call.

She said she heard from Mayor Domenic J. Sarno over the weekend, who himself had heard from several residents about the bikers.

“I have zero tolerance for this type of action and behavior," Sarno said in a statement this week.

Springfield Police Commissioner Cheryl C. Clapprood speaks with reporters and editors from The Republican and MassLive Feb. 20, 2020.Greg Saulmon / The Republican

Clapprood said the upcoming weekend is supposed to be nice, with temperatures in the 50s — which means it is a near certainty that she will receive more complaints.

She said she met with her senior staff to discuss strategies for dealing with the riders, but stressed the most important thing is that no one gets hurt.

Officers are under orders to not pursue any of the riders, she said, as a chase through congested streets could add to the danger.

“Pursuit of any type of bicycle, pedal or motorized, is not allowed,” she said. “If an 11- or 12-year-old kid gets killed because he’s running from police, no matter what he did, it will not look good for us.”

Rather than responding, police will use the department’s Real-time Crime Analysis Center to monitor riders’ movements through video surveillance. Officers will move in once the group has stopped somewhere.

That’s exactly what happened with the group who antagonized the bus driver at Union Station.

The Real-time Crime Analysis Center was able to follow the group to the parking garage at City Stage, where they rode up to the roof level and got off their bikes. Then, officers moved in.

“We were able to direct cruisers in because now I’ve got them off their bikes and in a stairwell,” she said. “That was a good position to go in and get them, and then ID the kid that did the spitting at the bus driver.”

Police are allowed to confiscate pedal bicycles for up to 15 days. Dirt bikes and quads, on the other hand, are unregistered motor vehicles and are not legal for use on any road in the city. Many of them are also stolen, she said. Police can confiscate those vehicles and hold them indefinitely.

Clapprood said the plan is to confiscate pedal bikes, hold them for 15 days and not turn them over until a parent or guardian appears at the police station to claim them. To collect the bike, she said, they will have to pay a $20 fine and listen to a lecture about the danger of allowing their children to ride and perform stunts in traffic.

She said she may go before the city council to request the fine be raised from $20 to $50.

“We’re going to inconvenience the parent or guardian,” she said. If that inconvenience reaches a point where the parent or guardian says they are not going to keep bailing out the kid’s bicycle, maybe it will influence the kid’s behavior, she said.

Maybe — but maybe not.

Clapprood’s communications director, Ryan Walsh, read aloud a Facebook post from the mother of the boy injured on Monday when his bicycle was hit by a car.

After saying the boy was not seriously hurt beyond some cuts and cruises, the mother blamed city police for her son’s injuries.

“Now to fight for my son ‘cause SPD ain’t gonna keep bullying my baby or any of the 413 Bike Life babies,” read the post as recited by Walsh. The woman closed the post by saying she has already ordered a new bike for her son, and writing: “Ain’t nothing stopping my baby boy’s passion. Nothing.”

Clapprood said that type of attitude is what police are encountering when they address the issue.

“Maybe it’s educating the parent. I don’t think she understands how dangerous that is. I mean, he got hit,” she said. “I don’t know what we’re going to do to convince her.”