Police Am-Bush Catches 74 Drivers Using Cell Phones

Someone must have challenged the Dunellen Borough (New Jersey) Police Department to get creative with traffic enforcement.

As the department reported on Facebook, an officer conducted a distracted driving enforcement detail on a “highly-trafficked, pedestrian-heavy” downtown area on Wednesday of this week. The mission was to enforce the state’s handheld cell phone law.

The officer dressed as a leafy green shrub and stood near a tree on North Washington Ave. to catch drivers who were using their cell phones as they drove past the officer planted near the curb.

“Did you spot our ‘shrub today?” the department asked in its posting. “If you had your head buried in your phone, probably not!”

The ambush strategy appears to have worked.

“Our ‘shrub’ was busy. We issued 74 citations to drivers distracted by their devices in a six-hour window,” the police reported.

The law bans drivers from holding or using a wireless phone to talk, text, scroll, or send electronic data. The fine for a first offense is between $200 and $400.

Many commenters applauded the police department’s branching out with comments calling the effort “awesome,” “great” and “brilliant.”

Not everyone embraced the idea, however. Several commenters accused the police of entrapment. One person said if she had seen the bush move, she might have had a heart attack.

Photo: Dunellen NJ Police Department Enforcement