Cops In The Crosswalks Returns To Fort Lee Next Year

FORT LEE, N.J. — The police department's Cops in the Crosswalk program will return in 2017, authorities announced.

The department obtained funding from the state Department of Highway and Traffic Safety to conduct the safety program again.

The department held the program in the spring to protect pedestrians in a town where dozens are struck by vehicles annually.

Plain-clothed police officers cross the street legally while the uniformed colleagues catch drivers who don't yield to them. The details are conducted at various intersections throughout the borough — especially near the George Washington Bridge.

Violators are fined $230 and receive two points on their driver's licenses.

Officers will also be on the lookout for jaywalkers and conduct seminars to educate schoolchildren and senior citizens on how to be aware of their surroundings while walking in the borough.

Photo a plain-clothed police officer motions to a motorist while walking through a crosswalk as the motorist drives through it. Patch file photo by Daniel Hubbard