Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Grants drive Evesham police to issue more distracted-driving tickets

In Evesham Township, where more motorists already are ticketed than anywhere else in South Jersey for talking on a handheld cellphone or texting while driving, police have written even more tickets than usual in recent months.

In Evesham Township, where more motorists already are ticketed than anywhere else in South Jersey for talking on a handheld cellphone or texting while driving, police have written even more tickets than usual in recent months.

Between January and May, 597 drivers were cited for the offense - a sharp increase from the 462 ticketed in the same five-month period last year, according to the most recent Municipal Court case data available.

Police Chief Christopher Chew, in an interview last week, tied the surge in citations to grant money from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which the state administers to police departments to enforce issues such as distracted and drunken driving.

Four grants - totaling $29,275 so far this year - allowed Evesham to pay some officers overtime to watch for violations on Routes 70 and 73, the township's busiest thoroughfares.

That meant an additional one to two officers were patrolling the routes at various times, Chew said. Up to three units, assigned strictly to traffic patrol, typically cover each road already.

"Really, nothing has changed except we have the opportunity to add additional personnel," Chew said.

The Inquirer reported in March that Evesham's police force is one of the most prolific in the state in citing motorists for using handheld cellphones while driving.

In the 2012-13 court year, which runs from July to June, Evesham surpassed Jersey City - which has almost six times the population - in the number of cellphone-ticket cases, with 1,521. The township has since dropped below Jersey City but remains among the top 10 in the state.

Some ticketed individuals have criticized the enforcement as an open bank for the township, pointing to state-mandated fines of $200 to $600. The revenue is shared by the municipality, state and county.

Chew and Mayor Randy Brown say the goal of the traffic stops is not collecting money but saving lives.

"If you drive in Evesham, don't use your cellphone, obey the law, and use hands-free. Is it any clearer than that?" Brown said in an interview last week. "And I'm saying that obviously very tongue in cheek, but is it any clearer?"

He added, "We aren't the only municipality that gives out cellphone tickets."

In April, Evesham was among 38 departments in the state, along with Cherry Hill and Gloucester Township, to receive $5,000 to pull over distracted drivers. Evesham's municipal court took in 176 cases of driving while using a handheld cellphone that month, more than in any month so far this year, according to the most recent data.

The New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety distributed the federal grant money to police departments that applied and qualified for it, basing the latter on how big a problem the departments said distracted driving was in their area. Police sometimes indicate that through crash and injury reports.

The grants are not performance-based, state officials say. But the number of tickets officers write can play a role.

"If we were to award a grant to a police department for a distracted-driving campaign, and they did not issue any citations, we would likely be less inclined to award that grant the following year," said Zach Hosseini, a spokesman for the state highway traffic safety division.

Steve Carrellas, of the New Jersey chapter of the National Motorists Association, an advocacy group, said that is worrisome.

"The trouble is, there may be a quantity mind-set as a motivation for future grants," he said. "And that's not good."

With or without grants, Chew has said, he wants his traffic units to find two to three violations an hour, though he calls it an expectation, not a quota.

Ultimately, he said, he wants the message - rather than the ticket - to have the biggest effect on drivers.

"I'd rather get that message out than ever have to issue a summons," he said.