Police Chief Lawson: No Ticket Blitz Ordered By Me Or Any Other Commanders

lawson video message 2The following statement was just submitted to TLS by Police Chief Rob Lawson: In regard to several inquiries from the media about a police ticket “blitz”, please be advised that there has been no ticket “blitz” ordered by myself or any of the other Commanders of the Police Department.  Inquiries were made about enforcement  of motor vehicle violations, particularly on Clifton Avenue between 2nd and 6th Street. I have reviewed the (38) summonses that were issued in this area over the last two days and about ½ of them  (18) are for excessive speed. The average documented speed for vehicles receiving summonses was almost 14 mph over the speed limit and the majority of them were in a school zone. This is a particularly hazardous violation which endangers pedestrians and other vehicles, especially in our heavily trafficked downtown area.
 
In addition to speeding, summonses were issued for the following violations: (4) Unregistered Vehicles, (2) Uninsured Vehicles, (3) Careless Driving, (1)  Unlicensed Driver, (2) Red Lights, (6) Seat Belts, (1) Failure to Inspect, and (1) Improper Turn on Red. As you can see, most of the summonses that were issued were for hazardous violations and the officers were doing their jobs in protecting our community by issuing the summonses. In many cases, multiple summonses could have been issued for additional violations such as cell phone use while driving and failure to stop for pedestrians at intersections.
 
As of May 1st , we will be issuing summonses for failing to stop for pedestrians at intersections so please be aware of this new law that I have spoken about repeatedly in the press. Cell phone use while driving without a hands free device is also a serious issue in town as you commonly see many people holding a cell phone to their ear and chatting while driving. We do have a high accident rate in Lakewood and it is attributable to all of the above stated issues.
 
Please slow down, do not talk on a cell phone while driving unless you are using a hands-free device, insure that your vehicle is registered, insured and inspected, always wear your seat belt and obey the traffic signs and signals and Lakewood will be a much safer community for all of us.
 
Thank you.
 
Chief Rob Lawson

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40 COMMENTS

  1. I can understand sometimes you speed up a bit without noticing
    But how are these a mistake?

    Unregistered Vehicles,

    (2) Uninsured Vehicles,

    (1) Unlicensed Driver,

    (6) Seat Belts,

    (1) Failure to Inspect,

  2. I believe you. But why are the regular officers writing so many tickets?
    I wish everyone had Chief lawson’s integrity. And he lives here.

  3. Do you think all those drivers who received the summonses filled out their Census Forms? Who knows…. Maybe If we have a higher population the Speed limit will go up? I wonder…..

    By the Way…. Avi Solomon – Did you fill out your Census Form? Probably… no?

  4. Hey!! Go check all the police cars! Come back and tell me why detectives are driving around with either expired or no registration!! Go tell me why officers talk on the phone while driving and not for police activity!! Go tell me why they pull over to the wong side of the road to chap a shmooze with another officer while supposedly patrolling and keeping us safe!!
    Stop the ticket blitz now!! this must stop now!!
    Hershel please help us!!!!!

    Five cars pulled over on forest at one time?? And tell me not a ticket blitz??

    The officers are complaining they are being pressured to give tickets by their supervisors!!

    We will remember this and a lot of other things at the polls!!

  5. I THINK YOU NEED TO REALIZE WHAT U JUST SAID U WANT THE POLICE TO MAKE SURE WE ARE SAFE BUT AT THE SAME TIME NO TICKETS WELL LET ME TELL YOU THAT EVERY OBNE OF THEM DESERVE THE TICKETS AND WHEN A KID GETS HIT BY A CAR FOR SPEEDING OR CAUSE U NEEDED TO TELL UR FRIEND TO GET U PIZZA ON THE PHONE JUST THINK WHAT IF IT WAS UR CHILD I SEE THIS EVERYDAY SO STOP COMPALKINING THEY ARE DOING A GREAT JOB MAYBE PEOPLE WILL START DRIVING NORMALLY AND APPRECIATE THAT THEY CARE ABOUT UR SAFETY START LOOKING AT IT FROM THAT POINT OF VIEW AND THAN POST A COMMENT

  6. maybe officers should be patroling neighborhoods instead of staking out clifton and forest aves.
    If there are alot of officers stationed in a certain area of course there will be more tickets given. they are there for the purpose of giving tickets.

  7. dont you think we should all be driving like a MENTCH! Im in Lakewood over Twety Years and Ive been stoped maybe once or twice. Tell me why i have to slam on the brakes every time I drive down Forest Ave!?! Maybe if we should improve our driving first at least in the name of safety.And btw why are so many parents driving with children unbuckled! Where is OUR sense of responsibility?

  8. To # 7
    Yet again if you aren’t doing anything wrong you won’t get a ticket!!!

    Why are you getting all worked up for people that are doing something wrong and getting what they deserve to get???

  9. to number 14! becouse everyone makes mistakes in life!! and no reason to burden everone with hundreds of dollars in this econemy one ticket can cost between legal fees , insurance etc…

    to number 9! the poele who run this town do go to the polls they put our police leadership in they control their salaries, they decide in budget cuts like howell cutting millions from police withover ten officers getting fired!! do u want us to start campaigning to lay off ten officers in lakewood where they are paid the most around??

  10. To #15 – When the mistake could potentially be a deadly mistake its not just a mistake!

    I’ve been driving in Lakewood for over 10 years and I never got a ticket in Lakewood! but I have been in a serious car accident where the other driver “didn’t see the vehicle I was in” I had surgery from that accident and have pain very often from that, and a close friend of mine is seriously injured for the rest of his life. Please explain to me how you could just go on your merry way and say ooops I’m sorry I made a mistake????
    If you are careful and obey the laws you wont get a ticket, don’t make it sound like the cops are wrong for trying to make people obey laws, and possibly save a life!

  11. Its a greatthing that the police are doing. We have been getting away with crazy driving for way too long. there are so many accidents in lakewood its crazy. We dont live in brooklyn. Our town has to many cars and we dont drive safely. How in the world can you complain about ticketing. Its one thing if they were not speeding but if they are then they deserve it. What right do we have to ask them to stop. Just cause we are jewish means we shouldnt get tickeed. have you ver heared of people complaining about the cops giving out to many tickets on the SI expressway. I say enough with trying to get special treatment in this town and live like evryone else in the world. By the law of the land. Every time we question what the police are doing or make an outrage for something the police have done to one of us it creates hatred. Its like they owe us something. We are in galus and WE DONT OWN LAKEWOOD.

  12. I just heard a story that an offcer gave a ticket to an indivdual parked in a parking lot for not being between the lines — you know the lines that are so faded you can hardly see them. I ask of you then, who is more wrong the person who parked there or the persons in charge of painting the lines!?!

  13. to #15 that little mistake can cost someone their life. So that expense will remind them not to make another mistake later. I got a speeding ticket 1 year ago and i still remember what it cost me so i stopped speeding.

  14. A lot of officers are driving around with their cell phones at their ear. While Chief Lawson is a real big mentch and very often goes out of his way to help out the community, some of his officers are not at all living up to his standards. I’m sure many have noticed on occasion officers blatantly violating the law for no apparent reason. Though these officers may be a rotten few, there can be a monitoring system very easily implemented with regards to these officers. We all know that these patrol cars are equipped with the latest technology available such as an advanced GPS system and other features that can figure out the speed of the patrol car at any given time. If this aspect would be thoroughly investigated, Chief Lawson would be mightily surprised to find out that some of his officers are not what they seem to be. Since these kinds of complaints are usually not made by an individual for fear of backlash from that officer, I figured here would be an appropriate venue to notify the chief of an ongoing (and sometimes dangerous due to excessive high speed)problem that has plagued the Lakewood community for a number of years. I hope that either Chief Lawson reads this himself or if anyone reading this can please notify him of this comment. In conclusion, I would like to know from other readers if they have the same feeling about these couple of rotten officers, to please post their comment here and maybe once and for all something might get done about it.

  15. That crosswalk law is so confusing. Try driving on a Friday when hundreds of people will be stepping out into the street expecting you to shortstop. My advice? Enough of this downtown! The place is a dive anyway. You can’t drive or park. Just get used to going to stores elsewhere. There’s Jackson, Westgate, Cedarbridge and Howell. Enough is enough.

  16. I have totally stopped going into town. It just became so bad. No Clifton and no 2nd street. I just finished a delicious meal at Out to Lunch and was back in my office in the Industrial Park in THREE minutes! It takes forever to get around downtown. And now tickets for crosswalks? Wonderful. Good luck!

  17. Follow the laws & you will not be ticketed. Chief Lawson is concerned
    about the safety of all Lakewood citizens.

    When driving, please do not use a cell phone or text. If the fine was $500.00, cell phone use will cease.

  18. I was stopped last. Week on rt9 for not wearing a seatbelt which I always do but happened to forget this time and the officer was very nice and asked me to put it on and have a nice day no summonds issued lakewoods finast

  19. Why r cops allowed to talk on the phone while driving?

    Police talk to their dispatchers so as to not tie up airtime while either at a call or responding to one. There is so much radio traffic sometimes the police officers can not get a word in edgewise, this is why you see them on the phone. Usually, I have seen them sitting someplace and talking on the phone. There are exceptions to the rules..you have to just check them out. Usually if there is an emergency like a HazMat Incident many of the personnel responding are on the phone while getting to the location, this is due to the high call volume and prep time it takes to get the scene information.
    Is it right, not normally, but you need a way to communicate w/o having it all posted on here. It is good sometimes but most of the time it is a security issue..I have seen calls here blow up and the LFD, EMS & LPD are just starting to work a scene. Is it really an issue of being on your phone while driving or is it that you have gotten a ticket for one of those things and you are mad cuz you think they are “targeting” you?

  20. To #20, i have a suggestion. How about we take pictures of officers talking on their cell phones (or doing other wrong things) and then forward them to TLS (or , we can start a Facebook group) for all to see how out of hand it is. Much like the careless driving pictures that were previously posted on TLS.

  21. Chief Lawson: I know you are a fair person and would never order this witch hunt. But can you honestly say that there is no ticket blitz going on?

  22. #28,
    Thank you for explaining the need for police to talk on their cell phones. There is a new product on the market now, you may not have heard of it. It’s called . . . . A BLUETOOTH! Why do the officers need to talk to the dispatcher without a bluetooth? Answer that one, please.

  23. Lakewood Police, please start a ticket blitz against unsafe school bus drivers. I shudder before putting my kids on the bus each morning. Stop signs, red lights, emergency vehicles all mean nothing to some of these drivers.

  24. While do the crime- pay the fine is a catchy cliche, the truth is that anyone who has ever gone to court for a ticket realizes what a revenue generating scam the whole system is. Legislators of the nanny state keep passing feel good asinine laws to regulate every aspect of life and generate more revenue to pay for programs that will bribe the masses to keep voting them back in.
    Anyone who has taken the time to read title 39 will realize that any cop can pull you over for virtually anything while driving. The only reason why most people don’t get tickets for half the stupid laws such as not hanging anything hanging from your rear view mirror is because most cops are too lazy to enforce asinine laws.
    Perfect examples: 49 states have no problem if you fill up your own gas tank. Yet NJ decided its a life threatening activity that must be outlawed. Not one life will be saved with this new stopping for pedestrian law. Statistics show that pedestrians getting hit by cars are either drunk, unable to be seen on dark nights, in the cars blind spot while the car is turning or children that run out into the street. But plenty of revenue will be generated!

  25. Ticket Blitz still going on!! And the speed limit on Clifton is 35 for most of the way. Cops are parked on Sixth and giving out speeding tickets right where it changes.

  26. I’m not questioning our great police chief I’m just looking for an explanation. If there is no ticket blitz then why are so many more people being ticketed than before? Just drive down Clifton any day this week and all you see is police giving out tickets. Isn’t that called a ticket blitz?

  27. Four of my friends who have never gotten a ticket have been ticketed in the past few days. A few of them basically did nothing wrong. If it’s not a ticket blitz than what is it?

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