Police Accelerate Traffic Enforcement With New Unit

The most persistent complaint from Fairfield residents is motorists who violate traffic laws by speeding, running red lights, talking on cell phones and narrowly avoiding accidents, Police Lt. James Perez said Monday.

To stem the tide of those complaints, Fairfield Police, beginning July 1, will have a unit dedicated solely to enforcement of traffic laws. The newly-formed Traffic Unit, established by Police Chief Gary MacNamara, will focus on what Perez termed "The three Es" - education, engineering and enforcement.

Perez said the Traffic Unit will have five officers - Sgt. Robert Kalamaras and Officers James Chueka, Gary Wikman, Benjamin Krygier and Paul Medvegy - all of whom were picked from the Patrol Division and selected for their skills in both enforcing the law and community relations. He said the advantage of having a Traffic Unit is that officers can immediately respond to complaints of traffic violations in a neighborhood.

Traffic Unit officers will be assigned to areas of town where residents have lodged complaints, and they also will attend community meetings and determine the true level of non-compliance with traffic laws through "speed plates," which record the volume and speed of cars, and lasar and radar units. The department's stand-alone speed trailer, which records motorists' speed on a display, also will be set up in problem areas.

The Traffic Unit also will look at whether roads can be realigned, through work by the town's Engineering and Public Works' departments, to create "choke points" to force motorists to slow down, Perez said.

Perez said the purpose of the Traffic Unit wasn't just to hand out tickets. "First and foremost is educating the community," he said. Education mostly would be done through meetings in neighborhoods where traffic laws are repeatedly violated and accumulating data on how often motorists violate traffic laws in a neighborhood, Perez said.

Traffic Unit officers assigned to neighborhoods likely will give warnings to violators of traffic laws at first, and MacNamara said residents may sometimes know ahead of time where the Traffic Unit will be deployed. "We're going to do it with a level of predictability, and also a certain level of unpredictability," MacNamara said.

Perez said changing the habits of motorists who violate traffic laws won't be easy. But he said the Police Department was committed to bringing motorists into compliance with those laws.

"One way or another, we're going to get compliance from the community. We're being given the tools and authority to effect change in town. This will bring a lot more peace to a lot more neighborhoods," Perez said.

MacNamara said motorists who violate traffic laws are "very prevalent throughout town - not only our town but other towns."