Police Traffic Squad

Starting Enforcement Work

By Andrew Gorosko

Until police are able to fully staff their new traffic enforcement unit next spring, they will provisionally place patrol officers on such traffic duty before then, as staffing levels permit, Police Chief Michael Kehoe said this week.

In response to continuing public calls for heightened traffic law enforcement amid growing local traffic flow, the Police Commission last month endorsed an eight-page planning document explaining how the police traffic squad will work to enforce traffic laws, with the overall goal of improved traffic safety.

Commission members urged that the plan be implemented as soon as possible. The Police Commission serves as the traffic authority for the town and the borough.

The traffic enforcement plan’s main goals are to reduce the number and severity of traffic accidents, cut traffic congestion, reduce aggressive driving, and control speeding. By making local roadways safer, police would seek to increase the local quality of life.

Due to police staff shortages, the police patrol unit has only about three-quarters of its authorized complement now available for patrol duty, according to Chief Kehoe. The staffing situation is expected to improve by next spring, when the local traffic enforcement unit would formally start work.

Until then, officers who are available for such duty, when staffing levels allow, will do targeted traffic enforcement, Chief Kehoe said.

The traffic unit would include motorcycle patrol Officer Steve Ketchum and patrol Officer David Kullgren. Also, Officer Jeff Silver would participate in his capacity as the police department’s commercial truck inspector.

At a November 7 Police Commission session, Chief Kehoe updated commission members on how the provisional traffic enforcement unit will be operating during the next several months. Police plan to submit monthly reports to the commission on the traffic enforcement that has been accomplished on a month-to-month basis.

Chief Kehoe said the separate tri-town traffic squad, which Newtown police have formed with police from Bethel and Redding, is continuing its enforcement projects in the three member towns.

Chief Kehoe said he expects the tri-town traffic enforcement unit to work in Newtown about twice per month. He said he hopes the tri-town unit is a permanent project among the three towns.

“Over the past several years, traffic, traffic congestion, and complaints of traffic violations on our thoroughfares and in our neighborhoods have become more common…Each year the community has become increasingly dissatisfied with the level of traffic, traffic congestion, speeding, aggressive driving, and other traffic issues,” according to the police traffic enforcement plan. Police research into public opinion has found “a high level of concern” on traffic-related issues, the plan states.

Traffic is “a neighborhood issue that has an impact on the day-to-day, moment-to-moment quality of life in our neighborhoods,” according to the plan.

“Communities support traffic enforcement when it is done with courtesy and professionalism,” it adds.

During the past several years, residents’ concerns about traffic problems in the town center, and especially along Queen Street, have been a focus of much Police Commission attention. The town commissioned the recent, separate Queen Street Area Traffic Improvement Plan to address those issues.