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North Plainfield Police Department

Press Release

Chief William Parenti

April 8 , 2016

Chief William G. Parenti announced Sheriff Frank Provenzano has committed sheriff’s officers to partner with North Plainfield police to continue former Prosecutor Geoffrey Soriano’s “Put it Down” campaign.  April is Distracted Driving Awareness month and our unique partnership has stepped up enforcement all month.

To illustrate just how bad the problem is we are publishing the upcoming Selective Traffic Enforcement Program “STEP” sting code named “Operation Distracted STEP” in the media. In addition, there will be a roadside message board informing motorists that police are enforcing distracted driving ahead.  The sign will read “u text u drive u pay police enforcement ahead”.  We wish this would, result in zero motor vehicle violation or stops.  Unfortunately, we feel motorists are so distracted they won’t remember reading or hearing about the sting operation; won’t pay attention to the roadside message board warning them of the enforcement ahead and will take a “Distracted STEP” into the sting operation.  If it is like most years we will not have enough officers to stop all the violations we will witness. 

North Plainfield motor vehicle crashes are up over 100 crashes in the past year and, we attribute most of them to distracted driving. 

Operation Distracted STEP (Selective Traffic Enforcement Program) 

Tuesday April 19, 2013 at 10am-11:30am

Location; RT 22 East by the Costco shopping center.