Marblehead Police review traffic concerns at strategy committee meeting

MARBLEHEAD – In 2010 police made 2,210 traffic stops and issued 1,048 citations, one citation for every two traffic stops, according to a statistical report from Police Chief Robert Picariello.The Police Department Strategic Planning Committee debated that simple statistic Thursday afternoon.Picariello cautioned committee members that the traffic stop figures, like all statistics, “tell us something – but they don?t tell the entire story.”Selectmen appointed the committee this winter in response to a consultant?s report on problems within the Marblehead police department.The highest number of citation charges was 439 for failure to stop at a stop sign or traffic light. Other high numbers were 273 for speeding and 111 for driving under the influence of liquor.Committee member Philip Devaux asked if the 2010 50-50 balance of warnings and citations might be high.In 2008, however, police made 3,549 traffic stops and issued 1,333 citations, a 2-1 balance according to the chief?s report. Picariello said he was unable to locate a national average for traffic stops and citations when he researched his report, but recalled that in 2008 the department had two to three new officers who targeted traffic violations.He said in his memory no police chief has ever issued a directive regarding traffic citations, or what committee members called “a quota” for traffic tickets.Committee Chairman Jeff Shribman said that anecdotal conversations he has had with townspeople who “are not fans of the police” insinuate that police stop people based on race. He suggested that the best solution to the police image problem was to get the facts out.Picariello noted that when state authorities targeted some communities to investigate alleged racial profiling in police traffic stops around 2005, Marblehead was not targeted.?Hardly a week goes by without a complaint about a particular street or intersection,” he said. “I think some of the best police work we do comes from motor vehicle stops.”Police Lt. Matt Freeman, a committee member, pointed out that some of the best traffic enforcement is achieved by having a police cruiser park at a target intersection. “People drive under the speed limit, they lower their cell-phones, they buckle their seatbelts and they back off from tailgating. Traffic stops intimidate and embarrass people. I can get you to slow down without one,” Freeman said.However, he recalled an Atlantic Avenue woman who complained about speeding and traffic violations on her street. When he sent an officer there to park his cruiser, traffic slowed down, but the woman complained again because the officer never stopped any drivers or issued any citations.?That?s the nature of the job,” said Fire Chief Jason Gilliland, also a committee member.