Newtown Police Department Recognized by AAA with Gold Award

The AAA of Southern New England recently honored the Newtown Police Department with a Gold Award for the their stellar traffic safety programs. Programs include a child passenger safety program, an aggressive drunk driving enforcement campaign and a strong motor vehicle enforcement program.

AAA also honored Officer Matthew Wood as a department-nominated Traffic Safety Hero for his work in curbing drunk driving in Newtown. According to the AAA’s release, Wood has been a leader in DUI enforcement for several years and has been a repeat honoree of the Mother’s Against Drunk Driving (MADD) award. In 2013, Wood made 10 of the department’s 61 DUI arrests. In 2012, he became one of 6 Drug Recognition Experts in CT. In 2013 he also conducted 4 DRE evaluations and worked to spearhead the state’s DRE program.

Photo: At AAA’s 5th Annual Community Traffic Safety Awards lunch recently at Marisa’s, Trumbull, Public Affairs Manager Fran Mayko, center, presented a Traffic Safety Hero Award to Officer Wood, left; and a Gold Award to Sgt. Jeff Silver, who nominated Officer Wood, right.

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