Newtown Township Police Crack Down on Aggressive Driving!

Newtown Township Police Chief John Hearn presented the Calls Report for March 2019 at the April 10, 2019, Board of Supervisors meeting. In March, the Newtown Police Department responded to 1,846 total calls, 338 (18%) of which were in Wrightstown Township (Newtown Police provides services to both Newtown Township and Wrightstown). See the chart below (not all calls are listed).

Crack Down on Aggressive Driving

The Newtown Police Department along with 63 other municipal police departments in surrounding counties are participating in a campaign to crack down on aggressive driving. The campaign officially started on March 18, 2019 and will continue through April 28, 2019.

As reported in the Patch on March 19, 2019:

"Law enforcement will use traffic enforcement zones, saturation patrols, speed enforcement details, corridor enforcement, work zone enforcement and multi-jurisdictional patrol strategies to identify and cite aggressive drivers."

As a result of the campaign, there were a total of 305 traffic citations issued by the Newtown Police Department in March, 63 (20%) were in Wrightstown. Over 50% of those citations were for speeding (31 on Swamp Road). In contrast, only 110 traffic citations were issued in February, 2019. Expect more of the same in April!

Struck Deer

There were 20 police incidents involving struck deer in March 2019 compared to 8 in February. Chief Hearn offered no explanation for the surge, but a resident noted that she recently has seen deer crossing the Newtown Bypass. It is not known if there is any connection between the two, although it is thought that the deer were “crossing at the green, not in between.”