The Boston City Council is trying to grasp how to cut down an increase in quality-of-life and safety concerns generated by mopeds, dirt bikes and unlicensed vehicles – an issue that police are continuously confronting.

Elizabeth Amador, a self-identified activist for the Latino community, says she’s helping people understand the law that mopeds and other vehicles must be registered, licensed and insured before they’re taken to the streets.

Most moped drivers, she said, are Spanish who typically come from the Dominican Republic.

“They just come to the USA with no idea about the law,” Amador said. “They don’t know what they need to do. They just get here, they get a moped, and they go to work because they need money.

“There is a lot of frustration within the community about the mopeds,” she said, “and they are all asking for some control. Something needs to be done. It’s gotten out of hand.”

City Councilors Julia Mejia, Ed Flynn and Enrique Pepen heard from Amador and other community stakeholders during an emergency town hall on Thursday.

In a statement on Friday, they said there’s a “strong desire” to develop programs, allocate resources, and implement “effective” enforcement strategies to “tackle the safety issues” arising from the vehicles.

Within the past two weeks, city police have seized 22 mopeds in two separate incidents. The first came on July 8 in Back Bay where 13 were taken off the streets, and the most recent, on Monday in Downtown Crossing where nine were recovered.

Between the two incidents, officers issued verbal warnings, citations and summons for various motor vehicle law infractions including unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and unregistered and uninsured motor vehicle.

Last August, about 40 riders on motorcycles and street bikes stopped traffic on the Leverett Connector Bridge — which connects Leverett Circle to Interstate 93 and the Zakim Bridge, and Route 1 North.

Luis Felipe Zapata Espinal, a licensed dirt bike rider, said he believes drivers of mopeds and dirt bikes have a different mindset than motorcyclists who he said drive carefully “because they know the danger that is involved.”

“The people that ride the mopeds or the small bikes think that is just kind of a toy,” he said. “The speed and the recklessness driving style can hurt no matter what kind of vehicle you’re driving.”

Police officers patrolling traffic are focused on educating the drivers on the law, often allowing them to proceed with the hope they learn from the mistake, Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Joseph Janezic said.

Those appearing in court are typically repeat offenders, he said, adding how he will inform judges about Thursday’s conversation and how residents are concerned about mopeds.

“Judges tend to minimize,” Janezic said. “If they’re not from the neighborhood, if they don’t know what’s going on, unfortunately, they tend to say ‘Well, what’s the big deal? It’s just speeding, it’s just unlicensed.’”

“But it’s not,” he added.

Boston Police Officer Joshua de la Rosa suggested the City Council introduce an ordinance that requires businesses selling mopeds to provide pamphlets on what’s needed to drive the vehicles legally.

“With the influx of immigrants coming into our city, us being a sanctuary city,” he said, “we have to come up with ways where we can’t demonize everybody. … The education could start right at the root of things, and folks already know.”

Seniors and young families in South Boston, the South End and Chinatown, Flynn said, are calling the councilor with concerns they have with the “recklesness of the moped drivers, the scooters or whatever we call them.”

“I insist and communicate almost every day with Boston Police that I just can’t have people on mopeds or any type of vehicle not obeying the speed limit and reckless driving, as well,” Flynn said. “We need to work together, and I insist that we crack down on reckless driving in the city. It’s bad for the residents, it’s bad for the drivers, it’s unhealthy.”

The unregistered scooter is taken away after BPD bicycle units deal with a scooter rider who had been riding on the sidewalk on Boylston Street at Dartmouth Street on Thursday. (Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)