By Jeff Lipton
Police have been handing out tickets to motorists in the Five Towns in record numbers, nailing drivers who break the law with 376 summonses for the first seven months of the year. In June and July alone, police handed out 135 summonses at $105 a pop. A ticket is a two-point offense on a driver's license.
Last year, from January through July, police issued 329 tickets for cell phone violations in the Five Towns.
At an average of 54 tickets per month this year, police are on pace to hand out a whopping 646 tickets by the end of the year.
We have communicated this to our troops, said Fourth Precinct Deputy Inspector James O'Leary. This is viewed as a quality [of life] summons in that it enhances public safety by its issuance. Studies have shown that a cell phone-distracted driver may be as dangerous as an intoxicated driver.
Nothing gets the attention of a motorist like a fine, he added.
O'Leary said police have received federal grants to staff officers on overtime devoted solely to catching cell phone violators, specifically on Broadway in Lawrence, Hewlett and Woodmere and Central Avenue in Cedarhurst. Those streets have been targeted as high-frequency accident locations, and officers have been stationed there in an effort to reduce accidents, police said. But other officers on patrol have also been on the lookout for violators of the cell phone law, treating it as seriously as removing a drunk driver from the road.
We have an aggressive cell phone enforcement program, said Deputy Inspector Richard McGuire, commanding officer of the Fourth Precinct. We have doubled our cell phone summonses in the last two months. That's one of our high-priority initiatives.
One lifelong Cedarhurst resident, who did not want her name used, said she is disgusted when she sees a driver using one hand to talk on the phone. When they do that, they are taking their life into their own hands and the life of someone else, she said.
That's a big thing, said a Nassau County court official of the cell phone crackdown. You might as well be drinking and driving if you're talking on a cell phone and driving.
Since police began issuing tickets in December 2001, the Fourth Precinct has been busy, handing out more tickets than the seven other police precincts in Nassau County. It issued 136 tickets during the first 70-day period the law became effective.
With all the publicity and attention given to the cell phone law, police are surprised that infractions occur as often as they do. I think this is part of our all-around enforcement and public education efforts, O'Leary said. Our direction to our patrol officers is to reduce accidents and to enhance public safety.
He said talking on a phone without a hands-free device while driving is just asking for trouble. Police said they aren't bound by a quota system to hand out tickets, but it has been a high priority.
Sometimes people get excited while talking to a family member, and sometimes they get into an argument. Handing out cell phone tickets has been a focus here, O'Leary said.
