Barrington Bulletin
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Barrington police issuing traffic tickets at much higher rate
Traffic summonses have increased sharply in the borough while other police activities have remained fairly steady, according to a review of public records.
During the past quarter-year — February, March and April — police have issued 422 traffic summonses.
That’s more than double the number issued in the same period in 2010, when they issued 208 summonses.During those three months this year, the police answered 1,503 calls and made 62 arrests.
In that period in 2010, they answered 1,441 calls and made 66 arrests.Numbers were not immediately available for January 2010.
NOTE: I reached out to Barrington Police Chief Joe Eisenhardt to comment on this story last week, but got no response. I also reached out to Borough Clerk Terry Shannon seeking response from any official, but she said Chief Eisenhardt would be the one who needed to respond. I let her know that he had not responded and that I would publish this on Monday.
If any borough official would like to comment, I will be happy to publish their thoughts.
Is this comparing 2010 against 2012? or 2011?
Also, I think the survey question is too vague. I can’t really support or not support the actions, unless we (I) know a breakdown of the types of summons issued. Were they for DUI, going through red lights/stop signs, passing school buses while loading, speeding in excess of 10mph, these I would support, and would hope they double again.
They are comparing 2010 (the first numbers available on the borough site) to 2012 (the current numbers). The numbers went up steadily (about 200 during the quarter in 2010; about 300 during the same quarter in 2011; about 400 during the same quarter in 2012).
You are correct that there are various types of tickets that could be issued. If the chief or any borough official would care to comment, I’d be more than happy to make sure their thoughts are attached to the article.
This is in no way meant to cast a bad light on the works of the department, which has been excellent in my experience. It’s an interesting trend that I noticed, and I thought others might find it interesting as well.
We need more patrols on Copely, which is used as a cut-through from Haddonfield to 295. Patrols there would have the advantage of slowing down traffic in an area heavily populated by small children and that doesn’t have crosswalks. And, chances are it’s a non-Barrington resident getting the ticket.
Where would others like to see increased enforcement?
Clements Bridge & Little
Reading Ave…100 block through 200. Reading is a cut through from Clements Bridge Road to Third ave which leads into 9th Ave into Haddon Heights. Not only do people speed through to avoid traffic on Clements Bridge, but to make matters worse, you can not turn right onto 3rd ave from Clements Bridge, so it only adds to the motivation to cut through. Further, the weekends are a whole different problem as people drink at The Rail which lies at the point of Reading and Clements Bridge. They then come zooming up Reading drunk all night, especially after 2 am. As residents of these 2 blocks, it is a smart move to put all your cars in the driveway at night rather than risk the possibility of being side-swiped by a DUI driver.
Or how about the idiots that go through the red light, dinging bells and blasting horn of the train – just because they don’t want to wait a minute for the train to pass!
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Kudos to the Barrington PD. They are a bunch of good guys fighting the good fight. I often pass through Barrington via Clements Bridge Road driving 25-30 mph and I always have a knucklehead honking his horn and making fists at me or clicking their headlights at me. I just wave and they give me the finger. When they do this I make sure I slow my Astro to a slow and steady 25mph, and boy do they get sore. I’d be happy to hear that some of these turkeys are getting tickets. Lol
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