Caldwell Police 'Ramping Up' Traffic Enforcement

Caldwell Police Chief Kurt Dombrowski is often asked by residents about the amount of sirens that blare throughout the borough at times.

Any recent commotion could just be the sound of another person getting pulled over.

Just over a month ago, the police department launched an aggressive campaign to combat speeding, failure to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks, hand-held cell phone use while driving and other motor vehicle violations, Dombrowski said this week.

The program, which has issued 83 summonses in a span of 20 hours since the end of April, was initiated to coincide with the paving of Bloomfield Avenue and a new law that forces drivers to stop—not just yield—to pedestrians in crosswalks, Dombrowski said.

"We're ramping it up," the chief said. "When Bloomfield Avenue gets repaved, it's going to be a speedway. We're going to have radar out there—more than we do now. We have it out just about every single day, but it's going to be out there more frequently."

Dombrowski stressed the campaign is not related to or a result of the questioning at a council meeting two weeks ago by Councilman Gordon Lawshe, chairman of the public safety committee, of what he believed was a disparity in the number of summonses issued by members of the department over a four-month period.

"This program has absolutely nothing to do with that," Dombrowski said.

The program, which began several weeks prior to that council meeting, has consisted of five, four-hour special detail assignments of three roving patrols to monitor speeding and other traffic violations as well as two safety checkpoints.

According to Dombrowski, the roving patrol involves one officer in an unmarked vehicle whose only focus during the four hours is to conduct traffic enforcement.

The safety checkpoints involve two or three officers who ensure drivers are wearing seat belts, not using a hand-held device, possess a current inspection sticker and have no other equipment violations, Dombrowski said.

While these are considered overtime assignments, a fully-staffed shift would include four other regular units—one of which usually conducts traffic enforcement as well, Dombrowski said.

According to Dombrowski, the department has received a total of 5,481 calls since January through Tuesday afternoon and responds to an average of 66 incidents each day with 21 domestic violence, 17 narcotics and seven DWI arrests so far this year.

In addition, the department has conducted 1,078 motor vehicle stops and has been using a speed trailer to alert motorists how fast they are traveling through the borough.

"It's out there so the public can see exactly what speed they're going. The common person out there driving doesn't know what speed they're traveling, but if they see that sign facing at them—it's blinking at them as they are coming—they know they're doing 30 or 35, whatever it is, they have to slow it down coming into the center of town," Dombrowski said.

"There's a campaign going on among the council to make the entire distance within Caldwell 25 miles per hour. They will do that. They will succeed with that and we'll be there for the enforcement. We believe in educating, but we also believe in enforcement when education doesn't work."

Councilman Peter Murray, a member of the public safety committee who delivered the group's report in Lawshe's absence Tuesday night, said enforcement will be particularly stringent once the paving of Bloomfield Avenue is completed.

"It's bad enough the speed of people on Bloomfield Avenue, but this new paved road is only going to make the track a little slicker," Murray said. "We talked to the chief about this and the enforcement is going to be ramped up, specifically for that reason."

According to Dombrowski, discussions with the public safety committee and Borough Administrator Paul Carelli are continuing to evolve to better enhance the enforcement.

"We talked about more ideas—perhaps another car coming in that doesn't look like a cop car at all, beefing it up a little bit and going out there and doing our traffic enforcement," Dombrowski said.

"There are more than 26,000 cars a day on Bloomfield Avenue. That's a lot of cars on a little four-lane county road. That's the reason why we're stepping it up."