Town of Smithtown Cracks Down on ATV, Off-Road Vehicle Illegal Activity

Town of Smithtown officials have begun operations to crack down on all-terrain vehicles (ATV) and other off-road vehicles after several complaints of drivers operating illegally in the area.

Last weekend, the Town teamed up with Suffolk County and state officials to send additional patrols to local parks. A total of 10 vehicles were confiscated and 42 summons were issued, according to Smithtown Public Safety Deputy Chief Kevin McPadden.

"The community has complaints of vehicles increasing in annoyance and creating havoc in local parks," He said. "Imagine walking with children in a park and being approached by two or three 600 pound quads. Folks were fed up."

While McPadden says the problem is not unique to Smithtown, the Town chose to begin the initiative after receiving multiple complaints of drivers driving ATVs, dirt bikes, quads and other vehicles recklessly, disobeying traffic laws, and attempting to escape police.

"The attempts to deal with this using regular patrols have been fruitless which is why we have been working together with other agencies in planning and coordinating efforts in the parks within the Town of Smithtown," he said.

A total of 18 officers were on patrol over the weekend. McPadden said the biggest problem of these vehicles driving illegally were found at the Kings Park Psychiatric Center and the Kings Park State County Park.

The problem was found to be more prominent in the parks as well as the back streets leading up to the parks.

Many of the drivers would not yield to police, who were both on foot and on vehicle or listen to their orders to stop.

The initial feedback from local residents in response to the initiative was positive and McPadden says the Town plans on patrolling the parks in the future after they were "satisfied with the results" from this past weekend.

"We have every intention on continuing the initiative," he said. "We certainly have every reason to be and we will continue to have this problem and to deal with it. The word is out now and people know illegal activity will not be tolerated."

Photo credit: Smithtown Department of Public Safety